AROUND THE KREMLIN. 



AROUND 

THE KREMLIN; 



OR, 

PICTURES OF LIFE IN MOSCOW. 




AUTHOR OF THE WANDERER IN ARABIA," ETC. 



LOXDOX: 

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 

13 GEE AT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 

1868. 



The Right of Translation is reserved. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Charms of Moscow — Growth and Progress of the City — Hostile Inva- 
sions — Successful Defence of Moscow — St. Petersburg a Town of 
Yesterday — The Invasion of 1812 — Impressions on entering the old 
Muscovite Capital — Its Position — The Moskwa — The Sparrow Hills 
—Parties of Pleasure — View of the City — The Battle of Borodino 
— Who were the Victors ? — A Proud Moment for Napoleon — Wilna 
— Energy of the Russian Defence — Napoleon in the Palace of 
Peterhoff — Remarkable Contrast — Humiliation of the Invaders — 
Retreat of the French — Dispersion and Destruction of the Grand 
Army — Moscow Avenged . . . . . . . 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Extent of Moscow — The Kremlin — The Kitai Gorod, or Chinese Town 
— Streets and Boulevards — Moscow contrasted with other Great 
Cities — A City of Cottages — House of a Russian Nobleman — The 
Peasant's Cottage — General Appearance of the City — Walk from 
the Palanka Square — Broad and Noisy Thoroughfare — Country Life 
in the City — Quiet Streets — Pleasant Houses and their Tenants — 
A Professional Musician — Russian Churches — Novel and Picturesque 
Appearance of the Streets — Scenes of Russian Life — Beautiful Little 
Church — Aristocratic Street — Change in Russian Society — New 
Quarter of the Noblesse 11 

CHAPTER m. 

The Kremlin— The External Wall and Towers — The Moskwa— Fine 
Esplanade, and View from it — An Historical Question — The Nichol- 
sky Gate — Inscription by the Emperor Alexander — Russian Super- 
stition — The Arsenal — New Law Courts and Government Offices — 
Trophies of the Campaign of 1812 — Unnecessary Precaution — The 
. "Tzar" — The Imperial Palace — The Sacred Gateway — The Towers 
and Bells of Ivan Veliki — The " Czar Kolokol" — Panoramic View 
of the City — Great Number of Churches and Cupolas — Old Resi- 
dence of the Romanoffs — Ancient Palace of the Ruriks — National 
Pride of the Russians ' . 24 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Present Emperor — The Emperor Nicholas — Entrance into Moscow 
by the St. Petersburg Road — The Emperor's Route — Chapel of the 
Virgin — Famous Picture of the Iberian Mother — Bonds of Sym- 
pathy between the Emperor and the People of Moscow — His Ortho- 
dox Piety — His Appreciation of Kalatsch — The Palace of the 
Empress — Devotion to the " Iberian Mother" — Daily Scenes at her 
Shrine — Sum annually collected by Voluntary Offerings — Visits of 
the Holy Mother — The Benefit of a Common Religious Sentiment 
— An Act of Sacrilege — The Criminal and her Punishment 36 



vi 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

A Walk in Moscow and its Environs— Church of St. Sauveur — Curious 
Little Chapel — Cavalry Barracks — Inconvenient Position of the 
Horses in the Stables — Something like a Personal Affront — Culti- 
vation of a small Gourd used by the Russians — Women at Work — 
A Russian Gardener and his Subordinates — The Devitchei Convent 
—The External Wall and Towers— The Church, Bell Tower, fee- 
Burial Places — The Congregation and Service — The " Queteuse" — 
Dispersion of the Congregation — " Une Affaire Tenebreuse" — The 
Papa 53 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Cow of Northern Russia — Cattle let out to Pasture — A Cow on 
its way Home — Climate and Productions of Little or Southern 
Russia— The Extent of Moscow— The Thief Market— The Police 
of Moscow — Robberies and Burglaries — Purchasers of Stolen Goods 
— Scenes of Real Life in Russia — Men of the Market— Speculating 
in Old Clothes— Ingenious Thieves and Ingenuous Yictims — Sale of 
Stolen Goods — Not for the Market — Russian Character — A Hard- 
won Victory 69 

CHAPTER VII. 

Beds in Hotels — Rapid Improvement — Russian Noblemen on their 
Travels in Former Days — Change produced by Railways — M. 
Dusaux's Hotel and Cuisine — Interior of a Russian Hotel — View 
from my Window on the Boulevard — Carriages — The Public 
Rooms — Russian Waiters — Devotional Character of the People- 
Scene at Wilna — National Costume — Property held by Serfs — A 
Cossack Chief — Peasants on their way to Market — Riding and 
Driving — A Carriage of Primitive Construction — Adventure with a 
"Spider" . . 86 

chapter vm. 

The Foundling Hospital — Extent and Purpose of the Establishment — 
Crown Governesses — Russian Capacity for Governing — A Sunday 
Visit to the Hospital — The Buildings and Grounds — Internal Ar- 
rangements — Courtesy of an Official — The Chapel — The Pupils in 
Uniform — The Service — The Priest — The Responses — The Nurseries 
— Costume of the Nurses — The Superintendents — Messengers, Ser- 
vants, and Attendants — The Nurses at Dinner — Number of Orphans 
received daily — Another Visit to the Chapel — The Choir — The 
Papa — Theatrical Manner of the Russo-Greek Priests — The Gallery 
of Paintings — The Play Room • 105 

CHAPTER IX. 

Count L His Proficiency in the English Language — Invited to 

visit his Estate — J ourney in a Tarantass — Social Courtesy — Agri- 
culture in Russia — Russian Villages — The Cottages of the Peasantry 
— Family Party — The Law of Inheritance — Large Families — The 
Subdivision of Property — Reduced Nobles — The Abolition of Serf- 
dom — Russian Soldiers— Nobles and Serfs — Abuse of Power — Ar- 
rangement of the House — Grooms and Horses v. Wife and Children 
— South Downs — Horses and Cattle — Rotation of Crops— Extensive 
Gardens — Reminiscences of the Count — The Family Roof-tree — 
Impromptu Dinner in the Wood 129 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



CHAPTER X. 

Return to Moscow — The Count's Tarantass and Three Mares — The 
Coachman — Effect of Freedom on the Russian Peasantry — Unsettled 
State of the Country — A Nobleman's Mansion — Appearance of the 
Country — High-roads — Free and Easy Bathing — A Russian Inn — 
Passion for Tea — Domestic Arrangements — The Great House Stove 
— " Gone to Bed" — Vodka — Curious Illustration of Russian Police 
Law — Law of Trover — Piety and Pilfering — The Difficulties of 
Driving — Safe on the Pave . . . . . . 156 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Twerskaia — The Palace of Count Rostopchin — The Great Radiating 
Streets of Moscow — The St. Petersburg Gateway — The Promenade 
— The Carriage Drivers — The "West End" of Moscow — ACompanion 
at my al fresco Luncheon — Russian Children of the Upper Classes 
— Life of Young Gentlemen — The Petrofski Palace — The Main 
Edifice and Detached Buildings — The Baffled Conqueror — An 
Officer and his Wife — Military Exercises — Russian Soldiers and 
Officers — The Moscow World in the Petrofski Park — Tea under the 
Elms 173 

CHAPTER XH. 

The Paving of Moscow — Trial of Wood and of Stone Flags — Ornamental 
Villas — Houses erected by Government — Road-making in Russia — 
The Agricultural College — The Officer appointed to conduct me 
over the Establishment — The Cow Stables — Dutch and Swiss Cattle 
— Steam Engines and Machinery — Farm Horses — The Farm — 
Museum, Library, and Lecture Rooms — How the Property was 
acquired by Government — An Apothecary who made a good job 
of it — Russian Employes — Church of the College — A Russian Re- 
freshment — Restaurant on the Kitai Boulevard — Change in the 
Education of Young Nobles 193 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Convent Simonoff — Extent and Wealth of the Establishment in 
Former Times — Day of St. Sergius, and Fair at the Convent — 
Superb Bell- tower — Varieties of Costume — Young Gamblers — 
Interior of the Simonoff — The Superior — His Reception by the 
Crowd — " Devoured with Kisses" — The Church — Earnest Devotion 
of a Youth — View from the Bell-tower — Disappearance of my 
" Murray" — Distribution of Beer — The Fete proper — Tea-drinking 
Booths — Sale of Melons and Honey — Beggars — Organ-Grinders — 
Female Shop-keepers of Moscow — Chorus-singing . . 210 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Kitai Gorod — The Bazaars — Their Great Extent — The Shop-keepers 
— Playing at Draughts — Commerce in " the Rows" — Jewish Money- 
dealers — The Balance of Trade — Drain and Hoarding of the Pre- 
cious Metals — Exhaustion produced by the Crimean War — Com^ 
parative Value of Silver and Paper Roubles — Prevalence of Forgery 
— Curiosities of Russian Finance — Objections to War on the Part 
of Russia — Madness of the War Party and Fanaticism of the Re- 
ligious Party — Questionable Practices .... 231 

CHAPTER XV. 
Visit to Nijni Novgorod — Travelling in Russia in Old Times —Carriages 



Vlll 



CONTENTS. 



on Russian Railways — Persistent Smokers — The Passion for Tea — 
Convenient Arrangement — My First Impression of Nijni — Peculi- 
arities of the Fair — Affluence of Foreign Merchants — The Chinese 
Row —Life of the Merchants during the Fair — Roads in Russia — 
Cossacks — Magnificent View from the Plateau — Vessels in the 
River — Former Importance of Nijni — Curious Story relating to the 
Sacred Bell of Nijni — En Gargon at the Fair — A Russian recherche 
Dinner — Visit to the Landlord's Fish -Wells — The Tea- Stores — 
Shops and Shopping — A Noble and his Wife — Decline of Nijni 245 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Profligacy of Russian Nobles — Extenuating Circumstances — Benevolence 
of the Higher Orders — The Galitzin and Foundling Hospitals — Visit 
to Hospital founded by the Sheremaytieff Family — The Building, 
Apartments, and Gardens — Noble Endowment — The Dining Hall — 
Inmates — The Sick, Maimed, and Blind — Friendless Old Men — The 
Women's Apartments — Anecdotes and Portraits — Apartments for 
the Sick — General Hospital — The Governor's Room — Distribution 
of Money to Pensioners — Conversation with the Governor — Sum 
annually expended by the Hospital — Societe Fraternelle — Noble Side 
of the Russian Character 273 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Visit to the Convent of Troitsa — Its Foundation, Destruction, and Re- 
establishment — Historical Reminiscences connected with the Convent 
— Napoleon's Attempt to seize the Building and its Treasures — The 
Patriarch Philarste's First Railway Journey — The Town, the Valley, 
and the Convent — Agricultural Labour done by Women — The Col- 
lege and Churches of Vefania — Residence of the Metropolitan Pla- 
ton — Old Church — Representation of the Mount of Olives — Valuable 
Paintings — The Tomb of Platon — The Church of Gethsemane — An 
Ecclesiastical Diversion or Feint — Appearance of the Metropolitan — 
A Singular Monastery — Fanaticism in the Russo- Greek Church — 
Recluses in Underground Cells — Religion and Usefulness . 293 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

A New Investment for the Money of Monks — The Walls of the Monas- 
tery—Spacious Promenade — Interesting Serving Monk — Interior 
of the Church — Gaudy Paintings — Restoration of Frescoes by an En- 
thusiastic Merchant — An Ill-advised Monk — Sale of Holy Water — 
The Day of St. Serge— The Baker's Shop— The Cathedral— Sale of 
Candles, Images, and Oil — Rich Display of Pictures, Gold, Silver, 
and Precious Stones — The Treasury — Dining Hall of the Monks — 
Primitive Hospitality — The Hospital — The Dying Monks — The 
Greek Monk — Differences in Monkish Life — The Bloodstained 
Tower — A Monk's Cell — Ecclesiastical Academy . . 313 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Administration of Justice — Bribery in some cases Discountenanced — The 
Bureaucracy — Causes of the Low Morale of Public Officials — Insuf- 
ficient Salaries — No Public Opinion — Frequenters of the Hotel Du- 
saux — A Sign of the Times — The Levelling Process — Language of 
the Upper Classes — Intolerance at the Opera — Native Literature — 
The Works of Lermontoff, Pouchkine, &c. — Growth of National 
Sentiment — Serfdom and Freedom — New State of Things — Rise of 
a National History, Drama, Fiction, and Music . . . 338 



AROUND THE KREMLIN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Charms of Moscow — Growth and Progress of the City — Hostile Inva- 
sions — Successful Defence of Moscow— St. Petersburg a Town of 
Yesterday — The Invasion of 1812 — Impressions on entering the old 
Muscovite Capital — Its Position— -The Moskwa — The Sparrow Hills 
■ — Parties of Pleasure — View of the City — The Battle of Borodino 
—Who were the Victors ? — A Proud Moment for Napoleon — Wilna 
— Energy of the Russian Defence — Napoleon in the Palace of 
Peterhoff — Remarkable Contrast — Humiliation of the Invaders — 
Retreat of the French — Dispersion and Destruction of the Grand 
Army — -Moscow Avenged. 

FT1HERE is a* charm peculiar to Moscow among the 
J- cities of the world. It is in itself the centre of 
the history of a people — a people one day fated to 
play a great part in the drama of the future. But at 
present the charm of Moscow is in its past story and 
in its present life. The interest of the past story of 
the city arises out of its peculiar position as the con- 
necting link between the East and the West. In this 
its situation is something analogous to that of Con- 
stantinople, standing upon the confines of two divis- 

B 



2 MOSCOW. 

ions of the earth, and thus it has had to bear the dis- 
cords of different races and to be the scene of the 
conflicts of opposing peoples. Moscow grew up from 
a collection of small villages to a town in the midst 
of warring and half barbarous tribes ; and thus, as it 
increased in concentration, and therefore in import- 
ance, it was sometimes attacked by Polish forces from 
the west, partly with the ambitious object of the so- 
vereigns of Warsaw to extend their possessions east- 
ward over the Muscovite plains; and partly out of 
fear of the threatening increase of strength of the 
populations accumulating on their exposed and east- 
ern border. At other times the country round was 
invaded from the east, and Tartar hordes came up in 
overwhelming masses to the walls, and bursting over 
them devoted the unhappy place to sack and pillage. 
These latter were actuated by no motives such as 
those which led the Poles up to the gates of Moscow 
— motives of possession and increase of national 
strength. These were only lured from their tents 
and their wild plains on the Don by the hopes of 
plunder and the gratification of their instincts of de- 
struction. But the hardy sons of Muscovy, though 
often beaten by the Poles, and frequently despoiled 
by the Tartar hordes, yet rose from their defeats in 



INVASION OF 1812. 3 

renewed strength, as Antseus from his mother earth, 
until, becoming the nucleus of a nation, they were 
able to beat off their enemies both on the east and on 
the west, and, becoming the victors in the place of 
the vanquished, they threw back the armies of Po- 
land on the one side and the horsemen of the Don 
on the other, and following the rule of the law of the 
strong and the weak they forced all their former ene- 
mies to submission. It is thus in and around Mos- 
cow that the story of Russia is to be read. St. Peters- 
burg is but the modern town of yesterday. It is as 
yet but the pert of Russia, an imperfect city, and 
bearing in all its accessories the marks of a new town. 
Even Peter could not make at once a capital city in 
all its completeness by even his iron and domineering 
will. 

But Moscow, with all its ancient story, would have 
but a minor interest in our modern eyes and in our 
western Europe, and but a weak hold upon our re- 
gards, were it not for one great modern fact — the 
march of Napoleon in 1812, the burning of the city, 
and his retreat. This is the one event which gives 
Moscow its prominent place in our thoughts of to-day. 
You cannot separate yourself, as you look at and 
think of the city, from this grand and tragic circum- 

b 2 



4 POSITION OF MOSCOW. 

stance. The grandeur of the enterprise, the amazing 
proportions of the undertaking, the consummate skill 
of the arrangement, the energy of the conduct of the 
plan, the sublimity of the defence, the tragic failure, 
and the heroism under ruin — all these are the fea- 
tures of the picture to which Moscow owes the renown 
and the glory stamped upon the modern mind. 

You are at the entrance of Moscow, and according- 
ly, with your mind still full of the haunting story, the 
first thing you do is to unburthen your thoughts of 
that subject, to give them full swing, and to satisfy 
their demands by visiting at once the scenes of the 
drama, which are still to be distinctly recognised, be- 
fore you give yourself up to the enjoyment of the 
place and its varied beauties. Moscow stands in the 
middle of a waving country, upon a succession of low 
hills, much the same in elevation as those on which 
London stands. The river Moskwa, about as broad 
as the Thames at Windsor, runs into it from the 
north-west, and forming a small loop flows out again 
in the direction of south-west. On this western side, 
at a distance of three miles from the barrier, rises a 
hill, or succession of hills, of no great height. These 
are the Sparrow Hills, and at their foot flows the 
Moskwa. There is a small village on the ridge, and 



VIEW OF THE CITY. 5 

a few private houses of gentlemen stand on it on 
either side of the village and look down over the 
river towards the city. There are some small wooden 
buildings along the road-side in front of the village, 
and these are used by people from the city — parties 
of pleasure who come up to the Sparrow Hills to en- 
joy their tea or dine, and to look out from the veran- 
dahs over their sacred and glittering Moscow. The 
position, the broken and green and grassy slope with 
trees and shrubs at intervals, puts one in mind of 
Richmond Hill. The height from the water to the 
houses is about the same in both ; but instead of run- 
ning like the Thames in a straight line across the 
wide expanse of country below, the Moskwa comes 
up from the left hand with a circular sweep, passes 
along at the foot of the hill, and then descends again 
by a similar bend to the right, and continues in sight 
until it is concealed by the houses and bridges of the 
city at a distance of about three miles. 

From this height the whole of Moscow lies spread 
out before you as a map. You can see every part of 
it to its extremities, can mark every rise and fall of 
the numerous hills, its endless pinnacles and cupolas 
glittering in the sun, its towers, its bright-coloured 
houses, and its universal gardens. With your back to 



6 BATTLE OF BORODINO. 

the west you look to the north, over the river to the 
race-course and to the plain where the white tents of 
the troops form a canvas town, and to the Peterhoff 
Palace, — over the Kremlin and its gilded towers 
right in front of you to the east, and over the for- 
tress-like Convents of Simonoff and Novospaski, and 
the Sokolniki gardens and pine forests to the south, 
Behind you to the west is Borodino, — with your 
thoughts still full of the great tragedy of Moscow you 
cannot but think of Borodino. At about forty miles 
distance is that famous village near which Koutou- 
soff, the Russian Commander, halted his army on a 
low and broken ridge of hills and fought the battle 
with Napoleon, in which 80,000 men are declared to 
have fallen on the two sides, and the result of which 
opened the way for the French Emperor to Moscow. 
It may be said here en passant that both sides claimed 
the victory. Napoleon, of course, did so, as he did 
on all occasions ; and Segur relates in detail the cir- 
cumstances of the battle from the French view of it. 
But Ker Porter and Koutousoff claim the complete vic- 
tory for the Russians, stating that Napoleon retreated 
some miles from the ground after the battle of the 
7th September and only advanced again after receiv- 
ing his reinforcements, when Koutousoff, acting on a 



A PROUD MOMENT FOR NAPOLEON. 7 

preconcerted plan with Rostopchin, the Commandant 
of Moscow, again retreated, and thus left the city 
open. 

However this may be, the French came on in a few 
days, and on the 15th September their leading files 
came up the slope from the west to the Sparrow Hills ; 
and from this height they raised their shout of triumph 
and exultation, " Moscow ! Moscow!" at the sight of that 
brilliant city, the end and apparent reward of all their 
labours, lying at their feet. As he stood there, sur- 
rounded by his generals and his troops, it must have 
been a proud moment for Napoleon, for no grander 
or more beautiful city exists anywhere on the earth 
than was this now before him. The diameter of it 
from north to south is about six miles, and from the 
Sparrow Hill the whole of this extent without a break 
was under his eye ; and the possession of such a city, 
the capital of a great people, filled, as he could see, 
with almost unnumbered churches, and, as he would 
naturally suppose, with merchandize of the East and 
West and private possessions of the great Russian 
bankers and nobles, would appear to him to be a prize 
of almost incalculable wealth in money and money's 
worth, as well as a diadem of glory to France. 

Standing there and gazing on that glorious scene 



8 THE RUSSIAN DEFENCE. 

I could not but imagine for the moment the position 
and the pride of the great Emperor. And then I went 
back over the story of the advance, the sudden pas- 
sage of the Niemen by Kowno — that fatal Rubicon— 
and the march to Wilna — pretty Wilna, lying in its 
hollow among picturesque and wooded hills — when 
all was bright before the French leader and his usual 
fortune smiled on him. Then, too, the Russians had 
not yet begun to burn their villages and towns and 
lay waste their country, as they did when he advanc- 
ed to Witepsk and Smolensk, and showed to him with 
what fierce and relentless hatred they sacrificed every- 
thing to destruction in their magnificent energy of 
hostility to his invasion of their country. 

At about a mile distance from the northern gate on 
my left there was visible, at the edge of the great 
military plain, the Palace of Peterhoff, to which Na- 
poleon had gone after viewing' the city from the Spar- 
row Hills, and where he remained for two days in 
vain expectation of the authorities of Moscow coming 
out to him, as usual in similar circumstances, with 
the keys of the town — a deputation of the conquered 
to the victor, to beg for clemency. But then how little 
he understood what the Russian people had resolved 
on ! No deputation came ; and with angry words 



REMARKABLE CONTRAST. 9 

upon his lips and with sad presentiments of coming 
evil in his heart, he entered the city and the Krem- 
lin ; and then only he learned, by the fire bursting out 
almost simultaneously in many quarters, even in the 
Kremlin itself, under what totally new and savage cir- 
cumstances his invasion was to be met by a united, 
and a devoted, and an infuriated nation. 

As I descended the hill homewards I could not help 
thinking, so beautiful was the scene from that height, 
so peaceful in its repose and so bright and shining in 
the rays of the afternoon summer sun, how glad a 
contrast it was to that sublime but terrific spectacle 
on those days of September in 1812, when that same 
city was wrapped from end to end, here in sheets of 
flame, and there in rolling masses of suffocating 
smoke, sacrificed by its inhabitants that loved it on 
the altar of their country. And as I went on, I could 
think of nothing but the humiliation of the so lately 
jubilant conquerors, as they turned their backs for 
the last time, in their reluctant retreat, on those same 
Sparrow Hills, with their faces towards France, that 
France so dear to them, for which they had $ared so 
much, and which so few of them were ever to see 
again. The devastated city was behind them, the 
cry of vengeance everywhere around them, while 



10 MOSCOW AVENGED. 

maddened hosts on every side destroying the destroyer 
at every step with unsatisfied rage, until worse came 
upon the doomed victims, worse than the Russian 
swords, the icy hand of winter ; and then regiments 
disbanded and dispersed to meet no more, and whole 
divisions, in their exhaustion and despair, surrendered 
themselves to their conquerors, with all their spoil, — - 
and Moscow was avenged. 

But now let us forget the icy march of death, and 
the shouts of the avenger, and go down from the hill 
into the lovely and laughing city. 



11 



CHAPTER II. 

Extent of Moscow — The Kremlin — The Kitai Gorod, or Chinese Town 
— Streets and Boulevards — Moscow contrasted with other Great 
Cities — A City of Cottages — House of a Russian Nobleman — The 
Peasant's Cottage — General Appearance of the City — Walk from 
the Palanka Square — Broad and Noisy Thoroughfare — Country Life 
in the City — Quiet Streets — Pleasant Houses and their Tenants — 
A Professional Musician — Russian Churches — Novel and Picturesque 
Appearance of the Streets — Scenes of Russian Life — Beautiful Little 
Church — Aristocratic Street — Change in Russian Society — New 
Quarter of the Noblesse. 

IV TOSCO W is said to have a circuit of twenty miles. 
■ The centre of this, or nearly so, is the Kremlin 

Hill, on the banks of the Moskwa. There is a broad 
open space all round the Kremlin wall, and no build- 
ings approach its sacred precincts. On the east side 
of this hill, and beyond the great market-place, is a 
curious small block or collection of houses and streets 
called the Kitai Gorod, or Chinese town. This, too, 
is enclosed and separated from the great city by its 
own battlemented wall encircling it, and outside of 
it is a broad boulevard laid out with trees and walks. 



12 BOUND THE KREMLIN. 

Across this are market-places, large buildings, open 
spaces, the theatres, gardens, the Foundling Hospital, 
Hotels and Club Houses, bending round all the way 
from the river Moskwa on the one side of the Kremlin 
to the Moskwa again on the other. From this boule- 
vard radiate many large streets to the barriers ; but 
these streets are intersected at some little distance by 
other boulevards, running in a circular direction all 
through the city, also laid out with trees and walks ; 
and again farther on by still another, a third, boulevard 
similar to the others. Thus the city is divided into 
circles by these open spaces, which admit air and light 
to all parts of it. But Moscow is a city unlike any 
other capital. In the great cities of the world the 
streets are throughout composed almost entirely of 
large houses, and one street resembles another in the 
general size and character of the buildings. One 
street may be a little broader than its neighbour, and 
the houses in the larger one may be of a more ornate 
style than those of the smaller, a great thoroughfare 
more imposing than the narrower cross street, but 
still there is a general resemblance. But this is not the 
case with Moscow. This may be almost termed a city of 
cottages. In fact the Russian house is a cottage, on a 
small or a large scale according to the rank and afflu- 



RUSSIAN HOUSES. 13 

ence of the owner, and these form the greater part of 
Moscow. The noble builds his house, in town or coun- 
try, on a cottage plan. He raises a low wall of stone or 
brick of some four feet in height, and on this he builds 
a wooden house of one storey. It is long and wide, and 
a passage or hall intersects it from one extremity to 
the other, and the rooms on either hand open on to 
this and communicate with each other. Often, too, 
there is a small superstructure rising from the centre of 
this wide basement, but this is generally only a small 
addition — in fact, a small cottage built in the centre of 
the top of a large one. Sometimes, but rarely, that 
upper structure is as large as the lower one and forms a 
complete one-storeyed house. But beyond this no truly 
Russian house ever rises. A broad night of steps in the 
centre of the front leads up to the level of the floor 
of the building at four feet from the ground, and a ve- 
randah, deep and shaded, runs all along this front, and 
sometimes this extends down the two sides to the back. 
As a rule, the whole building is of wood. In the villages 
the cottage of the peasant resembles in its essential 
features the house of the noble. It has the night of 
steps, the verandah in front, and sometimes even the 
miniature structure rising from the centre. These no- 
ble cottages and peasant cottages form the greater part 



14 MAIN AND CROSS STREETS. 

of Moscow. You should imagine a circular city the 
centre of which are the Kremlin and the Kitai Gorod, 
and that from this centre radiate a certain number of 
broad thoroughfares running out to the different bar- 
riers. These main streets are all from forty to fifty 
feet in breadth in the central parts, but widen to sixty 
and seventy, and even more, as they approach the bar- 
riers. The buildings on either side of these are what 
are always by the natives called stone houses, but are 
in reality invariably brick, and they are all of only 
one storey, with very rare exceptions, such as in the 
case of some public buildings. Thus the houses being of 
very low elevation and the streets broad, there is great 
brightness through the city. But when you turn out of 
any one of these large thoroughfares into a cross street 
you find yourself at once among village cottages. These 
cross ways, which form a network in the large spaces 
between one great thoroughfare and another, are the 
prettiest and most quiet and retired little country re- 
treats one can imagine. They are quite unique in their 
repose and neatness, and their entire absence of the 
noise and turmoil of the great city. For instance, 
let us walk from the Palanka Square in the centre 
of everything, close outside of the wall of the Kitai 
Gorod, and taking the street to the Post Office, 



RUS IN URBE. 15 

distant only about half a mile, we come on it, 
a large white building, standing far back from the 
thoroughfare, in a fine court-yard seventy or eighty 
yards in length and enclosed by a high iron railing 
with gilded spear-points. Here we cross the next 
boulevard, and immediately beyond it we turn out of 
the broad and noisy thoroughfare leading to the Red 
Gate and the Petersburg railway station, a thorough- 
fare always resounding with carts or droschkies or 
carriages, and we find ourselves in a quiet, pretty, 
retired street. A few yards farther on we turn 
down what might be a lane in a country village. 
On either hand are small cottages, the windows look- 
ing on the street, but there is no doorway. To each 
of them is a large gateway opening into a green and 
grassy court and garden. As we walk by, the gate 
being half open, perhaps, we look in, and witness a 
quiet scene of the country. There are trees, two or 
three small laburnums or acacias, and a flower-bed, 
and cocks and hens are walking about on the grass 
plot ; there is perhaps a cow, and the stable and 
coach-house, and a man is pushing the rude tarantass 
into the coach-house. The women are seated on the 
verandah, or on the steps leading down into the gar- 
den, and the children are at play. It is a sunny spot, 



16 COUNTRY RESIDENCES. 

fresh, and green, and bright, and quiet, as if fifty 
miles from Moscow. The whole thing is of wood, 
the house, the gateway, the garden palings, but no- 
thing can look more neat or more home-like. Each, 
in fact, is a little village domain. In the windows, 
too, of some of them are flowers and books, and wo- 
men sit in them at work. From end to end of this 
lane is a succession of these country residences, and 
in the far end one, of some little more pretension, 
lives some official. It is in one of this kind of pretty 
country houses that our British Consul lives, to whom 
I take this opportunity of making my acknowledge- 
ments for unvarying kindness and much valuable in- 
formation. These quiet streets are all over Moscow, 
lying between the great thoroughfares. 

It was pleasant to stroll about among these seclud- 
ed ways and watch the daily life of the Muscovites. 
These cottages were all tenanted, and I was informed 
that it was by no means an easy thing to obtain one 
as a residence. They bear a very high rent ; they 
are not shops, and are occupied many of them by 
the families of tradesmen who have saved up a little 
money and invested it in a Moscow cottage. Others are 
let to officials, clerks in offices, or in houses of bank- 
ers or merchants, of whom there is an extensive and 



A MUSICIAN. 17 

wealthy body in the town. The general air of them 
is good and bespeaks a tenancy of well-to-do people. 
There are some of these quiet lanes within almost a 
stone's throw of the Grand Opera House and of the 
Kitai Gorod, quite in the centre of the town, and in 
some of these the cottages are occupied evidently by 
families quite of the humbler class. 

One day I wandered along the great Boulevard to- 
wards the river, and, attracted by the sound of music, 
I turned up one of these small lanes and found myself 
in a maze of pretty ornamented villas, all built in the 
cottage style. A gate of one being open I looked 
in, and from the open windows issued the sounds 
which I had heard. The instrument was a piano and 
the player a man. He was evidently a professional — 
perhaps of the Grand Opera. Sometimes he let his 
hands stray over the chords in that careless manner 
so indicative of the musician, wandering irregularly 
without order, and yet producing a wild and graceful 
harmony; then striking, as if accidentally, two or 
three notes of some well-known air of Mozart or Ros- 
sini he followed it up for a few bars, his voice burst- 
ing into the song with full, mellow, manly tones ; and 
then as suddenly he ceased as he ran his fingers 
rapidly over a dozen notes with a flourish, and then 

c 



18 SUDDEN DIP INTO A VALLEY. 

all was silent. I sat down upon a stone at the gate- 
way, in the shade of a laburnum which hung over 
the garden paling, and listened. A turn in the wind- 
ing lane shut out the noisy boulevard at a little dis- 
tance, and surrounded by trees and gardens and cot- 
tages I could easily believe myself to be far away 
from a capital city, and in a country village. It was 
a hot August day, the smell of flowers came from the 
gardens, the shade of the laburnum fell over me, and 
then, at intervals, the musician got up from his seat 
by the piano. I could hear him walk along the floor 
humming some air, and then he would sit down 
again, as some thought or fancy struck him, and 
throw the fancy into music in his unstudied way, un- 
til it ran on into some remembered air, when again 
he would be unable to resist the temptation to pour 
out a line or two of the Orphe'e aux Enfers in his na- 
tive Russ. At this time this fine opera of Gluck was 
being played at the Grand Opera House of Moscow 
by native performers, many of whom have fine voices. 

Sauntering on, I came presently to a turn of the 
street, between a small church of rich ornamentation 
and some trees and palings, where was a sudden dip 
of the ground into a valley, or gorge, which ran down 
to the Moskwaon my right, and sloped up to the level 



ASPECT OF MOSCOW. 19 

of the hill on my left. All this head of the valley, as 
well as its sides, was laid out in cottage villas. On the 
top of the ridge of hills rose up frequent churches, 
each church with its five green or gilded cupolas and 
its bell tower, tapering and graceful, the walls either 
brilliant white or delicate pink. All the houses being 
low, each in its garden, almost invariably with white 
walls and green or red roof, the effect was singularly 
bright and picturesque. The air of Moscow being 
light, and dry, and strong, whatever smoke there may 
rise from the chimneys, instead of hanging in mid air 
as with us in our damp climate, is dispersed at once, 
and the result is you see no smoke anywhere. In that 
bright atmosphere the houses and churches thus con- 
tinue externally for a long time clean, and the people 
being fond of bright painting the general aspect of the 
city is as if the whole population had just completed a 
general painting of roofs, and walls, and chimneys. 
As you come suddenly on these interiors of the town 
from some hill top the effect is something exceedingly 
novel, and the first feeling is that Moscow is the most 
picturesque and the most attractive city you have ever 
seen. 

As I stood there, leaning over a low paling by the 
side of the lane — for it was a village lane much more 

c 2 



20 COUNTRY LIFE IN THE CITY. 

than a city street, the hill-side was quite steep beyond 
the paling, — a peasant woman came out of a small 
rude wooden hut and called her chickens about her 
and fed them. These came hurrying at her call out 
of two or three little out-houses, flying over some 
tumble-down palings from the garden and wild 
grounds down the slope below the yard ; and then 
the children came out from somewhere, dirty and 
healthy, and a small dog joined the company and 
stretched himself in the sun. From where I stood I 
had a bird's-eye view down into these rustic premises 
immediately under me. It was the very rudest coun- 
try life in the midst of the city. Presently a noise be- 
hind me made me turn round, and across the lane on 
the steps up to the church door was an old man 
sprinkling fir branches, or rather ends and tips of fir 
branches, on the steps and into the doorway. Some 
ceremony was being prepared for. But what a con- 
trast was the rich church with the rude cabin and 
garden across the lane ! The church was of a square 
form outside. In the inside the arrangement was in 
the usual form of the Greek Cross. Five gilded cu- 
polas rose from its roof, but the sides were elaborate 
with marbles and sculpture. It was an elegant little 
building, the windows high up, square and Italian, 



PLEASANT VILLAS. 21 

marble pilasters projecting from the walls, and a nar- 
row band of sculptured stone-work running round the 
whole church below the windows, and another similar 
one above them. The whole of it was fanciful and 
pretty. Inside, too, it was bright with much gilding, 
and was more like a pet private chapel in the coun- 
try than here within almost a stone's throw of the 
Great Boulevard. 

Skirting the church along the lane I came out on 
the hill, and keeping on towards the outskirts of the 
city I entered a long wide street, quite different from 
any I had seen. Here were a succession of Italian 
villas on both sides, — large imposing gateways, lofty 
walls, and white one-storeyed houses with large gar- 
dens and courts. In most of these a long line of win- 
dows looked on the street from the line of elevation 
of the top of the garden walls ; and here on this first 
floor, the bel piano, were evidently the chief rooms of 
the family, for in almost all of the houses I passed 
there were ladies sitting by one or the other of these 
windows, either at work or reading. In some cases 
they were leaning out and talking. There were no 
shops ; all were dwelling-houses. The street was 
broad, silent, clean, and brilliant with summer sun. 
Now and then its silence was broken by a droschky 



22 A TYPE OF SOCIAL CHANGE. 

passing, or a more imposing carriage of one of the 
dwellers in the street stopping at a gateway; and then 
the big doors opened into a court, and the carriage 
entered, the gates closed, and all was still again. The 
whole thing was rich, exclusive, aristocratic. I found, 
on inquiring, that this had once been one of the no- 
blesse quarters, and these their houses ; but in late 
years the nobles had, in their troubles, emigrated to 
another quarter, and now these Italian villas were oc- 
cupied by the rich commercials of Moscow. This was 
a type of the change that is gradually going on in Rus- 
sian society ; as a Russian gentleman one day said to 
me, " We are going down, and our estates and houses 
are passing into the hands of the men of commerce." 

Naturally, when the country estate is cut up and 
divided, or sold, the Moscow palace, or villa, goes 
too. In various parts of the city I subsequently saw 
extensive buildings, once the gorgeous palaces of no- 
bles, now fallen from their high estate. One of them, 
a Sheiemaytief Palace, which had lately held one 
hundred and fifty retainers of all kinds, a papa and a 
chapel forming part of the establishment, was now in 
the occupation of a commercial company, the grass 
growing rank in the back courts and the flower-garden 
running wild. 



• QUARTEK OF THE NOBLESSE. 23 

The present quarter of the noblesse is nearer the 
Kremlin, and the houses are pretty country villas in 
gardens, many of them consisting only of a raised 
ground-floor. They show that still the Russian gen- 
tleman retains all his old love for the native style of 
house. The streets of this new quarter of the no- 
blesse are not broad, but as the houses are all low 
and stand in gardens away generally from the street- 
side, and as there is not much traffic along them, 
there is a freshness and a brightness of the air and a 
repose and soothing quiet which make a saunter 
along them particularly pleasing. Here and there 
children are about in the gardens, or domestics are 
lazily occupied in the stable-yards cleaning the har- 
ness by the stable door, or lounging about, enjoying 
the u far niente" while the noisy hum of the busy 
city is just audible beyond the precincts of the quar- 
ter. Pretty and quiet as it is, however, it has not 
the rich and imposing air of the old aristocratic quar- 
ter now taken possession of by the men of commerce. 



24 



CHAPTER III. 

The Kremlin — The External Wall and Towers— The Moskwa— Fine 
Esplanade, and View from it — An Historical Question — The Nichol- 
sky Gate — Inscription by the Emperor Alexander — Russian Super- 
stition — The Arsenal — New Law Courts and Government Offices— 
Trophies of the Campaign of 1812 — Unnecessary Precaution — The 
"Tzar" — The Imperial Palace — The Sacred Gateway — The Towers 
and Bells of Ivan Veliki — The "Czar Kolokol" — Panoramic View 
of the City — Great Number of Churches and Cupolas — Old Resi- 
dence of the Romanoffs — Ancient Palace of the Ruriks — National 
Pride of the Russians. 

T)UT, of course, one of the first places you go to 
see is the Kremlin. It may be described as a 
solitary hill in the midst of the city, inclosed by a 
wall about a mile and a quarter in length. This wall 
stands up a little way on the slope, and is of irregular 
height. In some places it is perhaps seventy feet 
high, and in others not more than forty, according to 
the ground. It is of red brick, and is battlemented. 
There are eleven towers on it, four of which are above 
the gateways. All these four are of stone, lofty, 
many-storied, of open work, richly ornamented above, 



THE KREMLIN. 25 

heavy and rude below, partly of Italian Gothic. The 
others are of red brick, of varied and fanciful charac- 
ter — some round, and roofed with shining green tiles, 
and others square, like a Saxon donjon keep, while 
one small one resembles an Oriental summer-house. 
This latter was used in the days of the early Czars as 
a look-out place on the gatherings of the people, on 
any occasion of moment, on the great public market- 
place beneath the wall. Altogether the Kremlin is 
a grand old mediaeval fortress, once strong against 
Cossack lances and Polish spears, against bills and 
bows, but not of any use now against cannon. With 
its fine simple walls and its numerous and variously- 
shaped towers, it is a most picturesque relic of past 
times. The Moskwa river flows into the city from 
the west, strikes the foot of the Kremlin hill, runs 
along it from end to end of that front, and then, with 
a graceful bend, flows out of the city again to the 
south-west. The hill is cut away from the river-bank 
so as to allow a broad roadway along the base, and a 
steep pitch beyond rises to a fine esplanade on which 
stand the palace and other buildings and command 
the river to the west and south, the city and the coun- 
try beyond towards the Sparrow Hills. 

I asked various persons which was the gate by 



26 THE NICHOLSKY GATE. 

which Napoleon had entered and left the Kremlin, 
but it was an odd thing, there seemed to be a doubt 
which of three gates was the right one. However, 
there was one circumstance which appeared to mark 
it — an inscription by the Emperor Alexander over 
the arch. This one is called the Nicholsky Gate, and 
it opens on to the broad market-place ; but it is not 
the principal entrance to the Kremlin. Over it rises 
a lofty tower in successive storey's of stone, a fine me- 
diaeval structure. The arch is pointed Gothic, and 
above the crown of the arch is a picture of St. Nicho- 
las of Mojaisk, a small picture in a gilt frame, and be- 
neath this is the inscription. This latter says that Na- 
poleon, on his leaving Moscow, tried to blow up this 
gateway and tower, but that the Saint whose image is 
there protected and saved it. The consequence of 
this authoritative statement by the Czar is that no 
Russian, from the Emperor down to the peasant, 
passes in or out of that arch without uncovering to 
the picture, and most persons cross themselves three 
times and say a prayer. Thus all day long you may 
see, without cessation, people uncovering, or kneeling 
bare-headed, or crossing themselves energetically, at 
the entrance of the Nicholsky Gate. 

This gateway is a long arched way of some twenty 



THE ARSENAL. 27 

yards in length, the ground rising rather steeply; and 
when you are through it you find yourself still on the 
slope of the hill, with a broad open space in your 
front which continues quite over the hill to the far 
side, to the terrace above the Moskwa. Immediate- 
ly on your right is the Arsenal, an imposing structure 
of considerable extent, long and low ; while on your 
left is another great pile, in which are the new Law 
Courts, and other Government offices. What strikes 
the eye at first is the enormous number of cannon 
piled in compartments hi an artistic way on a low 
raised platform in front of the whole length of the 
Arsenal. There are large guns, small guns, plain, or- 
namented, iron guns, brass guns. There are hundreds 
and hundreds — it is said twelve hundred is the num- 
ber. These are the trophies of the famous campaign 
of 1812. Ker Porter and Segur both agree in this, — 
though they differ in so many other points, — that the 
French did not manage to carry one single gun over 
the Niemen on their quitting Russia — not one. Except 
those guns, then, that were blown to pieces purposely on 
the retreat, or thrown into rivers and lost, here are all 
of that mighty armament which the Emperor took with 
him on that fatal expedition. You cannot help regard- 
ing these silent witnesses of that terrible punishment 



28 PATRIOTIC INSCRIPTION. 

of overvaulting ambition without a certain degree of— 
well — deep sympatlry — almost a kind of pain. What 
scenes of carnage — what scenes of horror — of scarcely- 
human ferocity, of reckless courage, of brutal savagery, 
of wild despair, must these now sleeping engines of an 
unbridled violence have known and shared in ! How 
eloquent, too, they are, as they lie there in their quiet 
order, of all that tale of death and ruin ; and as you 
stand there and look at them, and touch them, the 
whole story seems to rise up and present itself fresh 
and tangible to your eyes. On a copper plate in the 
wall of the building is this inscription : — " Canons pris 
aux ennemis en 1812, sur le territoire Russe, par la 
victorieuse armee et la -brave et fidele nation Russe." 
I could not help thinking, as I read the words, that 
they tell the truth, but not the whole truth, as many 
another inscription does, and that if the words "et 
par le froid " had been added they would have sup- 
plied what was wanting. 

Many of these guns were ornamented with devices, 
flowers, and figures, and many bore mottoes. On one 
was stamped a large " N " encircled with a coronal of 
leaves. On another was " La Tempete ;" on others 
"Le Faucon," "L' Acharne," " L' Hercule." One bore 
the motto " Vigilatedeo confidenti;" others "Nemini 



COPYING MOTTOES NOT PERMITTED. 29 

cedo," " Concordia res parvse crescunt," "Pro gloria et 
patria," "Strasburg le 26 Fructidor," and so on. What 
a satire were now these boasting titles ! What a mock- 
ery of the vaunting words was their present humilia- 
ting position ! 

As I was examining some of these guns and copy- 
ing the mottoes near an archway in the centre of the 
building, in which a sentinel was pacing up and down, 
an officer came out and said this was forbidden, and 
desired me to go away. Of course I obeyed, though 
ruminating and trying to calculate what would be the 
chances of danger to the Russian Empire from a sim- 
ple traveller copying a motto or two of these captive 
and now harmless guns. It is true they were dug up 
more than half a century ago, some from, perhaps, 
some snow-drift at Krasnoe, where Ney lost his whole 
rear-guard, — or were captured near Smolensk, when 
the entire division of Davoust laid down its arms in 
despair, — or were fished from the waters of the Bere- 
sina, when Napoleon gave the terrible order to burn 
the bridge behind him, though crowded with the 
shrieking masses of his men, and when it sank with all 
its freight into the icy stream ! These were facts, but 
still I failed to see in them and my copying the mot- 
toes the combination of danger to Russia. However, 



30 THE TZAR. 

there were people who thought otherwise with a 
superior logic to mine, and so I gave in. 

You go on, with nothing to stop you, along the open 
space beyond the Arsenal and the Law Courts, pass a 
convent on your left and a guard-house of soldiers and 
barrack on your right — in front of which latter stands 
the monster-piece of ordnance called the Tzar cannon, 
weighing nearly 40 tons, — past the Senate House and 
the Cathedral — which, in fact, is but a small church — 
until you come on the broad, smooth, extending es- 
planade or terrace, crowning all the south-west front 
of the Kremlin Hill — the royal terrace high above the 
river, and commanding the city. 

It is a fine position for the palace, lofty, dominant, 
worthy of the imperial residence in the capital of a 
great country. As you turn round and lean on the 
low iron railing that runs all the way along the sum- 
mit of the steep grassy slope above the wall and the 
towers and the Moskwa, you have all that broad level 
space — part of it more than a hundred yards wide — 
in front of you, and beyond this ranged the long line 
of the many and striking buildings so celebrated. On 
your extreme right is the lofty and tapering tower 
above the ponderous sacred gateway, through which 
no one passes — not . even the Emperor — except un- 



THE TOWERS OF IVAN VELIKI. 31 

covered. Just inside this is the white and fanciful small 
Gothic church in which lie the remains of so many 
of the females of the Imperial family. Next to this are 
the walls of a convent, where a number of elderly ladies 
of good families possess a church abounding in bright 
colours and gold and silver ornaments, — and con- 
tiguous to it is the long, low front of an old palace of 
the Czars, of moderate pretensions. Touching this, 
but a little retired, is another convent ; and then suc- 
ceed, in an irregular line, the famous towers of Ivan 
Veliki with their numerous and world-renowned 
bells; the Cathedral and the two other churches with 
their gilded and glittering cupolas ; and then the long 
front of the new palace, a modern structure of yellow 
stone, with Arabesque windows, and containing three 
of the grandest halls in Europe. These comprise the 
remarkable front of the Kremlin, varied, broken, 
picturesque. Seen from the opposite bank of the 
river, with the castellated wall and the fanciful and 
varied towers of many colours below and the palace 
and temple-crowned height above, the long front ter- 
minating at either extremity in tall and graceful pin- 
nacles of the gateway towers, the mass of building is 
unrivalled for beauty and position. 

Of course you go to the top of the Ivan Veliki, two 



32 PANORAMIC VIEW. 

hundred and seventy feet in height, built by the 
usurper Boris Godunoff, after his generally-believed 
murder of the youthful Czar Demetrius, and see the 
bells, among the wonders of Moscow. The largest 
weighs sixty-four tons, one hundred and twenty-eight 
thousand pounds — a noble bell. But imagine the 
" czar of bells," at the foot of the tower, nineteen 
feet three inches in height, sixty feet nine inches in 
circumference, and weighing four hundred and forty- 
four thousand pounds ! This latter grand work of 
art is, however, broken, the tower in which it was 
suspended having been burnt, and the fall fracturing 
the " Tsar Kolokol " — the Emperor of bells. 

From the Ivan Veliki you have a panoramic view 
of the city, and you look down into the thousand- 
pretty gardens of the cottages and villas of which 
the city is principally composed. As these houses 
everywhere, great and small, have green or red roofs, 
but principally green, and the walls of them are al- 
most all white, the brightness of the buildings is a 
wonderful sight. The green gardens and trees and 
the green roofs so blend on some of the slopes that 
at a certain distance there are spots which look like 
one mass of verdure dotted with white. How unlike 
a city ! Then, as Moscow is declared to have some 



OLD HOUSE OF THE ROMANOFFS. 33 

four hundred churches, great and small, the number 
of cupolas and bell-towers is immense. I tried to 
count from the tower those of a section of the city — 
about one-sixth — -between my hands, held so as to 
shut off all but about that proportion from sight, and 
I counted one hundred and sixty towers and cupolas 
within that space. Multiply this by six. The space 
so enclosed, when I examined and compared it after- 
wards with the rest of the town, was not particularly 
crowded with churches. It was only an average sec- 
tion of the whole. The waving of the ground, the 
brightness of the buildings, the infinity of graceful 
objects rising above the houses, here in clusters and 
there in single towers, the glittering river winding in 
and out, the long slopes to it undulating and covered 
with villas, the singular freshness and ornamentation 
of the whole, composed a picture quite unique. 

The old dwelling-house of the Romanoff family is 
down in the Kitai Gorod, and though uninhabited 
since they became Emperors, it is still maintained by 
each succeeding Czar in all its original condition. It 
is a very small — indeed, diminutive, pretty, quaint 
building, which reminded me, in the size of its rooms 
and in its primitive arrangements, of some of the con- 
fined and cramped castles of the Rhine barons on the 

D 



34 PALACE OF THE RURIKS. 

banks of that river. The Romanoffs until 1613 were, 
while the Rurik family were on the throne, only 
Boyars, or rich and noble merchants. The residences 
of the highest were but small in those days ; thus the 
palace of Jean the Terrible and of Demetrius in the 
Kremlin is also a diminutive building — a specimen of 
the Muscovite mansion of those days, with its pretty, 
low, small rooms, like a lady's boudoir of the present 
day. It is elegant in form, simple in construction, 
and rather gaudy with paint. It was in the matter of 
colour that the fondness for display showed itself in 
that age, whether among Muscovite chiefs, or in Gal- 
lic and Teuton and British nobles. Gorgeous dresses 
of both men and women ruled the hour, but in Mus- 
covy paint in the houses was a passion; and this passion 
shows itself even now in the brilliant dressing of the 
peasants who can afford it on holidays, and the lavish 
painting of the churches inside and out, as well as of 
the walls and roofs of houses. Thus this little old 
palace of the Ruriks in the Kremlin — shut into a back 
court by the large new one — is painted inside and 
out from top to bottom, a bright and fanciful speci- 
men of the taste of the olden time. It is built in the 
thoroughly Russian style, each storey a much smaller 
one than that below it, so that each tier of rooms has 



APARTMENTS STILL USED. 35 

a terrace in front of it, part of the roof of the apart- 
ments beneath. There are three storeys to this an- 
cient edifice, each diminishing in size, so that the top 
one is composed of but a small room or two. From 
this upper terrace Napoleon looked out over his con- 
quest — his conquest in vain — burning in defiance. Of 
course there are the usual accompaniments of the feu- 
dal chateau — the grand hall of reception, the large 
apartment for feasting, and the pretty, diminutive 
chapel. These are used even now on some very 
great state occasions — -used in public as a kind of so- 
cial duty to the memory of the old Muscovite Czars — 
a usage which is dear to the people, appeals to all 
their traditionary memories of the sacred past and 
touches their national pride in and affection for their 
Emperors, links the present with the ancient days, and 
preserves as a living fire the superstitious reverence of 
this devotional, and almost fanatical, people to their 
Ruler. 



36 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Present Emperor — The Emperor Nicholas — Entrance into Moscow 
by the St. Petersburg Road — The Emperor's Route — Chapel of the 
Virgin — Famous Picture of the Iberian Mother — Bonds of Sym- 
pathy between the Emperor and the People of Moscow — His Ortho- 
dox Piety — His Appreciation of Kalatsch — The Palace of the 
Empress — Devotion to the "Iberian Mother" — Daily Scenes at her 
Shrine — Sum annually collected by Voluntary Offerings — Visits of 
the Holy Mother — The Benefit of a Common Religious Sentiment 
— An Act of Sacrilege — The Criminal and her Punishment. 

Hp HE present Emperor of Russia seems to study to 
A keep alive the feeling of reverence and regard 
between himself and his people with better tact and 
more success than his father did. Perhaps he does 
not study to do this, but, what is better, does it with- 
out any effort or plan — solely from a natural impulse 
of good-will towards those over whom he is placed 
as a ruler. Whichever be the cause, tact or kindli- 
ness, kingcraft or amiability of disposition, the fact is 
generally acknowledged — he succeeds. The late Czar 
was, as all agree, a harsh man, and though a grand 



THE PRESENT EMPEROR. 37 

figure in the eyes of his people, he was rather too far 
from them — too high and beyond their reach — a Ju- 
piter Tonans on a towering Olympus. He was ad- 
mired, wondered at, almost worshipped, but he was 
feared, and not loved. He believed more in fear 
than in love, a defect in the idiosyncrasy of a possess- 
or of power. But the present Emperor is a man of 
a kindly nature, and he wins all the good-will of his 
people without any display or effort — wins it by that 
talisman of influence and attraction— cordiality. He 
goes often to Moscow, and when there he does vari- 
ous little acts which show a sympathy with the Mus- 
covite character and Muscovite prejudice ; and when 
he goes away, he leaves no cloud on the popular 
brow which tells of discontent— no memory of some 
harsh deed which wounds the national feeling. 

Entering the city by the old St. Petersburg coach road 
and the Twerskaia — street of Twer — you approach the 
Kremlin through the Iversky Gate, a double gate, which 
leads on to the great market-place on the east front of 
that fortress. Although the railway from St. Petersburg 
now brings you into the city on the south-eastern side, 
and far away from the old gate from that capital on 
the north-west, yet the Emperor never omits to take 
a circuitous route along the Boulevard, and to enter 



38 



THE IBERIAN MOTHEE. 



the Kremlin on his arrival through that Porta Sacra, 
the Iversky Gate. It is in this gateway, or rather on 
the outside of it, on its northern front, stands the little 
Chapel of the Virgin, here called the Iberian Mother 
of God. It is but a diminutive building, perhaps 
twelve feet square, of stone, plain and unpretending 
outside, and about the size of a small turnpike gate- 
house in England. From the centre of it there runs out 
a stone platform of perhaps twenty feet in length and 
having on three sides to the street a descent of four 
or five steps. The interior is highly decorated with 
gilding, and lamps, and glass, votive offerings in vari- 
ous metals, and an altar ; and there is space inside the 
broad entrance-door for a few persons, and at the 
back of it, over the altar, is the famous picture of the 
Iberian Mother. Beside it always stand one or two 
Greek priests. The painting is Byzantine, and was 
brought here from Mount Athos in the reign of the 
Czar Alexis. An extraordinary respect, or it may be 
called veneration, is offered to this picture, much be- 
yond that to any other in Moscow, for at all hours of 
the day there are persons to be seen bending low or 
kneeling in the interior of the chapel, or on the plat- 
form, or on the steps. It has done so many wonder- 
ful things in its time, it is said, that it has become 



THE CZAR'S PIETY. 39 

one of the most important existences in Moscow. 

It is to pass through this gate on each arrival in 
this city that the Emperor goes out of his way from 
the railway-station to the Kremlin. On approaching 
the platform, his carriage stops \ he gets out, uncovers 
his head, enters the little chapel, and kneels, the 
world of Moscow looking on, impressed by the act to 
the bottom of its devotional soul. He comes out, 
mounts his carriage, and proceeds. The effect is 
amazing. To be remiss on this point — to omit this 
act — would be a great political mistake. The proof it 
affords to all eyes of the religious mind of their Czar 
— the example it sets to each and all his subjects in 
high places not to be wanting in veneration to the 
Iberian Mother — and then, not the least in this cata- 
logue of social advantages, the deference which he 
thus pays to the local prejudice and the strong feel- 
ing in this matter of the people of Moscow itself — all 
these combine to surround this act with a very serious 
and important sense. It is a bond of attachment be- 
tween the Czar and the Russian mind of far deeper 
meaning and influence than any common tie of men's 
political connexion or liking. 

There is another act, apparently trifling in itself, 
and yet having a peculiar significance, which goes 



40 KALATSCH, 

to show the kindly thought of the Emperor in his 
communication with the inhabitants of Moscow, and is 
a proof of how he has known to gain a hold on their 
affections. There is a small and fanciful form in which 
bread is made up at Moscow. It is not a loaf, it is not 
a roll, it is of a circular form, and is hollow, as some 
French bread is made, and is called a kalatsch. You 
may see a baker's boy in the street with twenty or thir- 
ty of these strung on a stick, or you may see fifty on a 
cord suspended in a shop. It is rather larger in diame- 
ter than a quoit, and the thickness of the bread is not 
much more than that of the iron. This kalatsch is the 
bread and the form peculiar to Moscow. The bread 
is light and sweet. When the Czar sits down to table 
in the Kremlin he asks for a kalatsch ; and you may 
hear the common Russian repeat with pride — "the 
Czar always eats kalatsch at dinner in the Kremlin." 
The fact of the present Empress having a pretty coun- 
try palace and estate — another " my own " — at a place 
called Ilyinsk, about thirty miles from Moscow, and 
which she likes to come to frequently, is another bond 
between the family and the Moscow world. One day, 
in one of the long passages of the Winter Palace at St. 
Petersburg, I saw a whole pile of boxes and trunks, 
apparently just off a journey, and a servant or two, 



CHAPEL OF THE IBERIAN MOTHER. 41 

in the Imperial livery, very active about them. In re- 
ply to my question — a traveller asks all sorts of ques- 
tions, of course — one of the men answered readily, 

u These are from Ilyinsk — the Empress is just come 
up from there ; she is very fond of going to Ilyinsk." 

To return to the little Chapel of the Iberian Mo- 
ther. It was a practice with me, on my return from 
any walk on that northern side of Moscow, to stop by 
this Iversky Gate, and sit down on a low railing by a 
little grassy inclosure, the ground sloping down and 
spreading wide and open to the boulevard in front of 
me. It was an airy and shady spot, a pleasant 
resting-place after a long walk, and, moreover, one 
of a curious attraction. Immediately by me was a 
long, low building by the grass, and which projected 
a little from a lofty white castellated edifice, some 
Government Offices. In this low spur or projection 
lived the ecclesiastics who had the care of the Iversky 
picture and chapel, and here they took care of the 
money constantly pouring into the coffers of the 
Iberian Mother close by. One day was like another. 
Arriving at my seat, I would find two or three women, 
sitting, too, on the low rail, resting themselves* from 
their country walk, and watching the scene, or ar- 
ranging their dress, and getting ready, from some 



42 STREAM OF DEVOTEES. 

small treasury among their garments, the piece of 
money — a kopeck — for the Iberian Mother. From the 
wide open boulevard, from the Twerskaia, from the 
Alexander Gardens, from the Kremlin, would arrive 
all kinds of carriages converging at this point — the 
chapel and the gateway. Business men from the Law 
Courts, ladies and children from the aristocratic 
quarter in the Beloi Gorod, people from the country 
in quaint vehicles of the rudest Tarantass build, pea- 
sants on foot, officers in droschkies, men of commerce 
on their way from the debtors' prison, hard by on the 
boulevard, where they had been to see their victim 
and hear if any new chance of payment had turned 
up, and now on their way into the Kitai Gorod in 
money-making interest — all stopped at the platform. 
On my side the stream flowed steadily through the one 
gateway on to the market-place beyond, while on the 
other side it came out from the farther gateway on to 
the open boulevard. It could not but strike you what 
an able position the Iberian Mother had taken up — 
the most commanding one in the whole city. Nothing 
escaped her ; it was all fish that came to her net. 
Why, the very best and cheapest dining-houses of the 
merchants were just across the broad boulevard with- 
in sight, and the straight road from their early dinner- 



RECOGNIZED FORM OF VENERATION. 43 

table to the exchange was through this gate. Here 
they drove up "pleni veteris Bacchi pinguisque fe- 
rinse," — dined on wild boar and sparkling champagne 
— and how should not their hearts be open to all 
warm influences, devotion to the Iberian Mother, and 
expenditure of roubles. So they all came up to the 
little platform. 

One afternoon I sat there as usual, — and as usual 
the stream of devotees never ceased. Sometimes the 
whole platform and some of the steps were occupied 
by kneeling people ; and then the whole would clear 
away, until only three or four persons would remain, 
sprinkled singly over the place on their knees, to be 
succeeded again by bareheaded and prostrate numbers. 
A great many gave nothing — that is, no money — 
there is a limit to giving, even to the Iberian Mother 
— they came up, kneeled down, said a prayer, crossed 
themselves three times, which seemed to be the re- 
cognised form or mark of veneration, and went on. 
Now an officer, big and important, with helmet and 
cloak over his uniform, dashed up in his neat private 
droschky, driven, of course, by his body coachman in 
blue dressing-gown and wide-brimmed hat, the horse 
a black Arab-looking animal, sleek and shining, of 
South Russian breed, a trotter — and the harness stud- 



44 PEASANTS AT THE SHRINE. 

ded with silver. The droschky stopped, the coachman 
unwound his right hand from its rein — a Russian coach- 
man drives with a rein in each hand, wound round 
it — and uncovered; the officer also uncovered and 
crossed himself, but sat still. At a word from behind 
him the driver let the horse go on at a foot's pace by 
the platform ; the officer crossed himself again three 
times, the driver crossed himself, too, as often — they 
both covered their heads, and the droschky and the 1 
black Arab dashed through the archway, and were 
gone. 

Then arrived a party of peasant women and men on- 
foot, ten or twelve — the men in white woollen coats, 
sewn at the seams with red, and the women with red 
and black shawls. Some kneeled on the platform, 
and some on the steps. After many self-crossings there 
came the moment of departure, and with it the question 
of money. Some had clearly by their manner no ko- 
pecks to spare, but with others there was a consulting 
together. One man was for going away without giving 
anything, but a woman touched his arm and whispered 
to him, and then three or four heads went together. 
" How much shall we give ?" " What have you got ?" 
" Will that be enough ?" These were evidently the 
matters in debate. The pockets were dived into, kopecks 



A PROFESSIONAL MAN'S DEVOTION. 45 

came forth from the male garments under female press- 
ure, and at last two of the women agreed to go into the 
chapel for the party and make the united humble offer- 
ing. By this time many others had arrived, and much 
ado the women had to get through the kneeling crowd. 
A lady or two in silken attire had placed themselves 
On their knees precisely in the opening, and there was 
no way of getting into the chapel except over their 
voluminous dresses. Of course the poor women could 
not do this, so they waited patiently till " the quality" 
had prayed and entered the shrine with their offerings, 
and then the women got in. Presently they returned 
with satisfied countenances, for they had seen the 
Iberian Mother, and had laid before her a little some- 
thing out of the home treasury, and a bit of their hearts 
besides. So they joined their companions, all waiting 
uncovered and with bent heads on the steps, and all 
went off together through the archway — happy. 

Then arrived a hired droschky, and atall, middle-aged 
man with a white face got down. He was well-dressed, 
in a dark frock-coat and grey trowsers, and scrupu- 
lously bright boots. By his dress he might have been 
a member of our House of Commons, or an M.D. I 
made a guess that he was a lawyer, and had just come 
from some client in the debtors' prison round the cor- 



46 A YOUNG PARTY. 

ner of the boulevard. He stepped gravely from his 
little carriage, walked up the steps, uncovered, and 
made his way carefully and slowly among the kneeling 
women, disturbing no one. How politely and un- 
offendingly he advanced, his manner so thoroughly 
that of the man who deals daily with courteous and 
silvery phrases wrapping up very unpleasant truths, 
gilding bitter pills legally or medically compounded. 
He kneeled down with an air of the deepest humility 
close to the door of the shrine, bent his head for a 
minute or two over his folded hands, then rose and 
went in and made his offering. On coming out he 
repeated his act of abasement, and then going down 
the steps with the same careful, gliding movement, he 
got into his droschky, the white face unmoved, and 
was gone. 

A party of well-dressed children came rapidly up with 
a couple of nurses in a well-built and well-turned-out 
Tarantass. I was curious to see how this young party 
would conduct their devotions under nursery guidance. 
But to my disappointment they did not stop. The 
coachman uncovered, and walked his well-bred horses 
by the platform, the women made the boys take off 
their neat little caps — all bowed their heads and crossed 
themselves, nurses and children ; but they went on, 



REAL DEVOTION. 47 

and in a moment were dashing through the arch. 

Then a stout young man, dandily dressed and with 
face rather flushed, drove up, or rather was driven up, 
as a Russian gentleman very rarely drives himself. 
He looked as though just risen from partaking of the 
" pinguis ferina" on the boulevard and the Falernian. 
He jumped jauntily down from his silver-mounted 
droschky, took off his hat, hurried in a bustling manner 
up the steps and along the platform, in and out among 
the prayer-absorbed figures, dropped on one knee for 
a moment at the entrance, went in, returned quickly, 
down the steps and into his carriage, and was gone in 
an instant. 

And so it went on, this living, moving panorama of 
real life. Some peasant man would kneel only on the 
bottom step, languid and careworn in manner and ap- 
pearance, as if he had a hard life, and not much hope 
of making it softer by any act of his, not even with 
the aid of a little offering in that chapel, and so he 
made none. Two poor women, too, came and kneeled 
down on the lower steps, and then leaned their fore- 
heads on the step above them. The attitude and ex- 
pression of the figures denoted the deepest devotion, 
and a real sorrow which weighed them down. There 
they knelt for some minutes, their heads pressed against 



48 SUM ANNUALLY COLLECTED. 

the stones, as if telling out all the sad tale of their life 
to the Iberian Mother, no doubt with a faith that she 
could hear it all, and, if she would, could alleviate the 
pain. Ah ! well ! it is a thing not to be laughed 
away, a prop to lean on — to be able to feel in this 
world an undoubting faith in something, whatever it is. 

It is declared that this little shrine collects in the 
course of the year a sum equal to ten thousand 
English pounds sterling from these daily and other 
offerings. It is also said that a large portion of this 
sum is used to pay the stipend of the Metropolitan of 
Moscow. It is moreover whispered, under the rose, 
that the Iberian Mother possesses a little treasury of 
her own, a*nd that when a thousand pounds or so are 
wanted in the city for secular purposes the governing 
bodies do not make application at the shrine in vain. 

There is a method very peculiar to the Mother of 
adding to her treasure. She makes visits. So fer- 
vent is the devotion of the Muscovite mind to this 
"lady of Mount Athos," and so profound the belief in 
her good deeds, that much of her time is taken up in 
going about in her carriage to various houses. Thus a 
carriage and four horses are kept for her use. If a 
new house is built by a true Russian of Moscow a 
request is made by the owner that, before he and his 



BOND OF UNION. 49 

family occupy it, the Mother may come and give it a 
blessing. Accordingly the picture goes in state. A 
person is seriously ill, and the picture is requested, as 
a means of cure. Another is dying, and the picture 
is entreated to come, as a last blessing. A couple 
are going to be married, and the picture must form a 
part of the ceremony or the bride will have fears for 
her future life. Thus sums such as ten roubles ? 
twenty roubles, a hundred roubles — sums up to 
twenty pounds — are paid readily to the Mother for 
conferring these distinguished favours and lasting 
benefits, according to the rank or wealth of the peti- 
tioner. There is, I was assured, a constant demand 
for the picture, and this sometimes so often in a day 
that a refusal is sent, thus — " The Mother is fatigued 
to-day, and cannot come." 

It must be expected that there will be abuse of a 
feeling of this kind. But, after all, is it not a happi- 
ness, and something more — a necessity, that there 
should exist a sentiment in which a nation can join, 
can combine ? Here is an immense country, Russia, 
spreading over a wide expanse, inhabited by peoples 
of various blood and race. Is it not an important 
thing that there should be a bond- — some one bond- — 
by which all these differing bodies of peoples may be 

E 



50 NECESSITY OF A COMMON SENTIMENT. 

united, so as to give the whole a cohesion and a force ? 
Many of these scattered populations, lying far away 
from all the highways of the civilised world, immersed 
in ignorance, and living the life of serfs till lately — 
practically slaves, as a general rule — what should act 
on these for the good of any one? What should 
give them one elevating thought ? Is there anything 
binds so strongly as a religious sentiment? — any- 
thing so universal in its action? Even a personal 
sentiment towards a sovereign, strong and combining 
as it is, is less so, less stirring and less cohesive, than 
the sentiment which can be roused on occasion to 
fanaticism and self-immolation. Politics require edu- 
cation, some little knowledge, some reasoning and 
argument ; but a sentiment requires no reason and no 
argument — nothing but a heart. The greater the 
amount of ignorance, too, in the brain, the greater the 
influence that can be exerted on the heart. Thus the 
Russian populations, buried in the depths of the great 
Continent, on the confines of savage Europe, and still 
more savage Asia, grovelling in the lowest humanity 
and in the rudest ways of life, what a blessing to them 
to have olfered to their affections — not politics, not 
reasoning, not education, with its impossibilities to 
many — but a sentiment. 



SACRILEGE. 51 

There is a story related of this little chapel at the 
Iversky Gate. There was a large diamond in the 
dress of the Iberian Mother, and one day it disap- 
peared. Of course there was a tremendous commo- 
tion in Moscow. The Mother had been robbed. 
What a sacrilege ! After a time the jewel was traced 
to the hands of a Russian lady, a member of one of 
the princely families. She had coveted this diamond, 
and while in the act of devotion had managed to ex- 
tract it with her teeth from its setting. Every effort 
was made by her family to save her from heavy 
punishment, but in vain. Had it been a mere rob- 
bery of a diamond from one Russian lady by another 
the whole thing would have been treated as a trine ; 
but from a shrine, and more especially from the 
Iberian Mother, this was too much. All the people 
of Moscow, and beyond it, were concerned in the 
matter — one which touched their dearest affections, 
their devotion, the one deep and pervading senti- 
ment. The princess was condemned to Siberia, and 
she was sent there for life. 

The passionate sentiment of a people is too grand 
and too useful an engine of power as a bond of so- 
ciety to be neglected or wounded with impunity. A 
tyrant fears it, but a statesman uses it. I do not be- 

e 2 



52 USEFUL ENGINE OF POWER. 

lieve that in any other spot in Europe such a scene 
can be witnessed as is enacted daily at that little chapel 
by the Iversky Gate in Moscow. 



53 



CHAPTER V. 

A Walk in Moscow and its Environs — Church of St. Sauveur — Curious 
Little Chapel — Cavalry Barracks — Inconvenient Position of the 
Horses in the Stables — Something like a Personal Affront — Culti- 
vation of a small Gourd used by the Russians — Women at Work — 
A Russian Gardener and his Subordinates — The Devitchei Convent 
—The External WaU and Towers— The Church, Bell Tower, Sec- 
Burial Places — The Congregation and Service — The " Queteuse" — 
Dispersion of the Congregation — " Une Affaire Tenebreuse" — The 
Papa. 

TF you walk down the public garden— the Alexan- 
der Garden — running under the lofty wall on the 
north side of the Kremlin, you arrive at the road on 
the bank of the river. You turn to the right along 
the road until you come to the stone bridge, but in- 
stead of going over it you keep on by the St. Sauveur 
Church. It is the most splendid in Moscow, built to 
commemorate the defeat of Napoleon. Two or three 
hundred yards from the church you are beyond the 
shops and the higher buildings, and you find yourself 
in a broad open street with houses on either hand of 



54 WALK IN THE ENVIRONS. 

the cottage character. They stand back from the 
public way in gardens — pretty villas, here of one 
storey elevation and there of only the raised ground- 
floor, with the usual verandah. As you go on the 
cross streets are of the same style. By degrees al- 
most all sound of carriages ceases. A solitary private 
droschky is seen only rarely standing at some gate: 
the doors are all open, and the servants are lounging 
about in conversation with their friends of the neigh- 
bouring villas. In many cases the railings in front 
are of open work, and you can see through them the 
children at play and the ladies sitting at tables at 
work under the shade of trees. You are in the great 
capital, but it is as quiet and as bright as if you were 
miles away from it. After a mile or so of this you 
see the open country in front of you. There is no 
gate or barrier. A church stands at the extremity of 
the buildings — a curious and elaborate specimen of 
the Russian ecclesiastical edifice. It is a small thing, 
and it stands on its little elevated rise of ground with 
a flight of steps up to the door, and a few clipped 
lime-trees are on the slope of the bank. Of course 
there are the five cupolas. Looking at it, you hardly 
know whether to smile or be serious. It is a church, 
and so you should be the latter ; but it is a diminu- 



BARRACKS AND STABLES. 55 

tive, heavy, quaint, fanciful structure, rather crushed 
by its five cupolas, and these and its walls and tower 
are all glaring in masses of colour. Deep blue walls, 
green roof, and red cupolas, and all these are in 
broad masses of strong deep colours. You are get- 
ting accustomed to all kinds of singular buildings as 
churches with the strangest ornamentation ; but this 
is an outrageous instance of the kind — a flagrant sin 
against taste in colouring. Probably the papa was 
addicted to painting, and when the day of painting 
came round backed his own fancy in the mingling of 
colours against the artist world of Moscow. How- 
ever, artistic taste in painting is yet allowed to be 
rather in its infancy in Russia, 

A broad grass track, in the middle of which was a 
rough country road, led me on, and presently I came 
to an immense building, white, of brick plastered. It 
was a cavalry barrack, and empty. Only a few wo- 
men and children were about, and men inside were 
whitewashing the interior. Through the low open 
windows I could see the endless lines of stalls. It is 
a rule in Russia to build the stables with the windows 
very low down, and then to have the rack and man- 
ger frequently in the very window. The horse must 
stand all day long with the strong glare of the light, 



56 GARDENS AND HOUSES. 

and if on the south side, of the sun, right in his eyes. 
I suggested to various Russians that this must be very 
fatiguing to the horses, and bad, too, for the eyes, 
but, as Charles Matthews says, " they did not see it." 
When I asked them — If you yourself come in tired, 
do you not find a corner away from the sun refresh- 
ing? — you are unwell, do you not like a shaded 
room ? Do you not find a glare in your eyes at any 
time dazzling ? Here are your horses tied up in the 
very blaze of light, and cannot get away from it. But 
" they did not see it "—the horses were accustomed 
to it. These cavalry barracks were built in this way. 

On beyond the barrack were gardens with occa- 
sional small houses scatttered about among them. 
Some of these were only gardeners' cottages, of wood, 
but others were evidently the residences of families, 
enclosed in two or three acres of orchard and pasture 
and belt of trees. A rude kind of grass track led 
among these. One of them pretended to ponds and 
a summer-house and water carried along in a 
winding ornamental way, through some coppice 
wood, with a rustic bridge over it. A young 
woman with two children, a boy and a girl, came 
out from one of the houses, with a small dog, 
the boy dressed, of course, in his red cotton tunic 



SERVANT AND CHILDREN. 57 

and long black boots — the little gentry of the place 
with their servant. They all came up the path gaily, 
till the dog saw me sitting on a rail in the shade of the 
coppice, and then he sniffed at me timidly with his 
nose in the air from twenty yards distance, and not 
then liking the look of matters, or something that 
told his nose I was not of his country, and therefore 
an enemy seeking the lives of dogs in general and his 
own in particular, he turned tail, and fled without a 
word into the shelter of the domain, careless of all 
appearances. The maiden regarding this as a warning 
of some very serious danger threatening the young 
heir in boots, and the little girl, and also her own 
precious person, caught up the little girl, and fled 
from me in dismay. Considering how very near we 
were to the capital I thought it was a strange proceed- 
ing, reflecting on my personal appearance. Did T look 
like a garotter ? 

Going on, I found a wide plain of gardens stretch- 
ing away to the river, a dead flat of a mile or more, 
at the foot of the line of the Sparrow Hills. People 
were at work in all directions. Small gardeners' 
huts were scattered about everywhere on the open 
plains. Soon I came up to an immense field of the 
small gourd which the Russians eat with almost every- 



58 PICKING GOURDS FOR MARKET. 

thing. There were acres of this small vegetable. It 
is of a green and yellow colour when ripe, about three 
to four inches in length, and has the taste of a mild 
cucumber. The common people almost live on it. 
Here were parties of women picking them in baskets, 
with one man to each line of eight or ten women, per- 
haps to overlook them. The vegetable grew in long 
regular rows and the women were marshalled in line 
between the rows. They were all decently dressed, 
except that none wore shoes or stockings. Those are 
commonly superfluities in Russia with the peasant 
women in the summer time. As I approached, their 
heads all bent down at their work, occasionally a 
voice would strike out three or four words of some 
song, and then, after a pause and a little broken talk, 
another would do the same. A hundred yards be- 
fore them was a small house, and there was the gar- 
dener with two or three men, horses in their harness 
hitched up to the out-houses, and two or three carts, 
and heaps of the gourds lying about on the ground by 
them. They were packing them for the Moscow market 
the next morning. The whole scene carried me back 
at once to the early days when I lived by the Thames, 
not far from Kew Bridge, where in the neighbourhood 
the gardens flourish which send their supplies, as here, 



MEN AND WOMEN AT WOKK. 59 

to the market of the Capital. I was too far off to dis- 
tinguish the features of the women, though when one 
discovered me and told her companions, of course they 
all struck work and had a good long stare at the stran- 
ger. But they did not consider me a garotter and fly. 
However, remembering the women in the Chiswick 
Gardens, and that beauty was a rare plant among the 
human part of those precincts, and knowing, likewise, 
that this same plant is not as common in harsh com- 
plexion-destroying Russia as in soft and skin-cultivat- 
ing England, I did not make any effort to approach 
nearer to the shoeless females. Somehow a woman 
without shoes and stockings, whether in the fields of 
Germany, or in the market-gardens of Moscow, is not 
quite attractive. The men were, as usual, stalwart 
fellows, the chief in his long coat, and the subordinates 
in their pink knickerbockers and loose cotton tunics, 
and all in the general high black boots, which give 
such a fine finish of strength and substance to the 
man of Russia. There was a sound, well-to-do look 
about the house ; flowers were in a small inclosed 
space by the wooden walls, and the rude out-build- 
ings, the carts and the harness, the horses and the 
men, and the piles of gourds as high as the carts, gave 
an appearance of rich plenty to the scene of labour. 



60 DEVITCHEI CONVENT. 

After a few words with the head man, and some 
pantomime in my limited Russian, and inquiring my 
way to the Devitchei Convent, I went on. Narrow 
pathways among the acres of gourds, and then of 
cabbage and other garden produce, and occasionally 
a rude cart track for a short distance, led me on to the 
convent, now visible behind some trees. 

What a grand fortress-like building is the Devitchei 
Convent ! This is the famous retreat for highly-born 
ladies. Imagine a lofty wall battlemented, of red 
brick, some thirty feet high, inclosing a square of three 
or four acres. The noble wall stretched in a straight 
line a]ong in front of me for three hundred yards, 
with small towers on it at intervals ; and fine buildings 
of red brick and stone-work rose up, lofty and impos- 
ing, beyond it. 

In the centre of the wall was a fanciful stone gate- 
way with a tower over it, and the gates being open I 
went in. Nothing could be neater than the interior. 
At the porter's lodge there was no one, so I sat down 
on a stone seat by the archway. All in front was a 
large space open down to the church at a hundred 
yards distance. This was a very rich and handsome 
edifice, with its gilt cupolas and broad flights of steps, 
over which projected a roof supported by light pillars 



THE BELL-TOWER. 61 

up to the arcade running round the church. To the 
right were low cottage buildings, and the same on the 
left, standing separate. To the right of the church 
was another rich edifice, either another church, or per- 
haps a grand hall or library. To the left of the main 
building was the bell tower. Anything more graceful 
you cannot see. It was of red brick, of square sub- 
stantial strength, not ornamented, up to about seventy 
feet, and then for another seventy feet it was of open 
work, tier upon tier of light arches and pillars, the 
whole tapering to a delicate point. In the open arches 
were hung the bells, I had heard the bells as I came 
through the gardens, the silvery musical bells calling 
the nuns to the afternoon service. 

Now, as I sat I heard the swell of voices in the 
church, so I walked down towards it. There was not 
a person visible anywhere. What a charming repose 
and beauty there was in the place ! Perhaps it was 
not a prison to some of the inmates, but a happy re- 
treat from the cares of the world. Anyhow, it was 
an attractive one to a stranger, judging merely by the 
outside. Narrow raised and paved pathways ran 
across and down the large space, preparations against 
the long winter snows and flooding thaws. At the 
foot of the flight of stairs on either hand were small 



62 NUNS. 

inclosed burial-places. Stopping to read the inscrip- 
tions in these, I saw not only the names of noble ladies, 
but of noblemen and general officers, on some of the 
tombs and head-stones. Members of old families con- 
nected with the convent like their bones to rest within 
the sacred precincts, and pay highly for the privilege. 
Here in this confined but picturesque cemetery, of a few 
yards square, lay the remains of some of the most dis- 
tinguished sons of Russia. 

On mounting the stairs I came upon the long, 
broad, and shaded arcade running to the right and left. 
Here were women in black standing about, with the 
air of dependents of the convent. The door being 
open in front of me I went in, and in a moment I 
found myself in front of a body of young ladies, of 
small delicate figures and pale faces, all in black, the pale 
faces made more pale by the setting of the close-fitting 
black cap tied under the chin. This covers all the 
hair, but it rises and terminates in a peak which 
comes up from behind in the form rather of the Phry- 
gian cap of the Naples peasantry. It is not becoming, 
but a pretty delicate face is a pretty delicate face under 
any disguise. The enormous pillars which support the 
cupolas and occupy so much of every Greek church — 
twelve feet square very often — break the congregation 



INTEEIOR OF THE CHURCH. 63 

into parties. So it was here. On my right was a body 
of the lady nans ; in my front between the pillars was 
another body; beyond them another. I was staggered; 
and all was so orderly and so arranged and occupied 
that I felt my coming in was very much like an intrusion. 
I was hesitating about backing out from the face of 
these small regiments of young ladies in sober black, 
when fortunately I saw on the left, not a further body 
of sombre ladies, bat four or five women in ordinary 
attire. So I took courage and my position by these. 
Everybody was standing — there were no seats. One 
of the enormous pillars was close to me, and in front 
of this, and between it and the low raised dais or en- 
closed space in front of the Ikonostas, was another 
body of the lady nuns in a high-sided pew. Only 
their heads and shoulders were above this. All along 
their front and beyond the pillar and out of my 
sight ran the Ikonostas, which was, as usual, richly 
adorned with pictures with gilded settings, up to the 
roof, and among them the heads of the Virgin and 
Saviour surrounded with precious stones. The floor- 
ing was covered with the usual rope carpeting in com- 
partments. Everything was extremely handsome and 
in good order, clean and cared for. Just as I entered 
the singing ceased, and then a man came in through a 



04 THE RUSSO-GREEK SERVICE, 

gilt door from behind the Ikonostas, as usual with long 
flowing hair and full beard, in a long silk brown dress. 
This was the papa of the convent. He was the only 
man in the church besides myself He came in with 
that usual easy and rather irreverential air of the Greek 
priest, and passing along to the centre of the Ikonostas 
he commenced a litany. He sang in a deep manly 
voice the prayer, and then one single female voice sang 
the response. There is said to be something melan- 
choly and affecting in the Greek service, and this was 
the case with this litany. There was a mournful ca- 
dence in the tones of the nun that sounded like a wail 
of sorrow. Each response was plaintive beyond ex- 
pression, and it terminated in rather a high-pitched 
note of the most touching appeal. It was a young, 
fresh voice, clear, soothing, and yet so pathetic it would 
make you weep to listen to it if you had a weak joint 
in the harness of your nervous system. I tried to 
crane forward decently to see the singer, but the enor- 
mous pillar and the high pew of the nuns prevented 
all chance, as she was somewhere further on. In the 
middle of this a slight movement behind me made me 
turn, and there was a small fragile nun at my side 
holding up a little velvet bag and peering at me with 
tender eyes. The features were delicate and the cheeks 



IN CHURCH. 65 

colourless. Poor little subdued lady! This gentle 
creature thus mutely begging, and the plaintive voice 
in my ears from the unseen singer, were irresistible. 
As I looked into her pretty soft brown eyes and 
dropped my coin into her bag I refrained — and only 
refrained — from whispering u Sweet sister " to the 
pensive little being before me. As I stood there a 
wandering eye from the high pew discovered the 
stranger, and in the course of a few minutes nearly 
every face in turn stole round to look with Eve-like 
curiosity. I regret that as a rule the young ladies 
were decidedly plain. To be sure that black cap is not 
becoming, and it requires a considerable amount of 
good looks to balance the evil. Of course I had no 
business to think of such things in such a place, but 
still there were extenuating circumstances. I did not 
know a word of the litany, the whole scene was pic- 
turesque in the extreme and affected the various con- 
tradicting parts of one's nature ; and the result was, as 
my senses were more immediately appealed to, the 
senses did not refuse to reply to the demand on 
them. 

On leaving the church I seated myself again on the 
stone seat by the entrance gateway. The little nuns 
came out in irregular bodies and dispersed all over 



66 A KNOTTY SUBJECT. 

the pathways, and by flights of stairs to the several 
courts, to the cottage buildings and to the cloisters. 
Lastly came the elders and the superiors, two staid 
ladies of more than middle age, up the central path 
to a handsome building on the other side of the en- 
trance gate. They were in animated talk, and be- 
tween the steps of the church and the archway near 
me they settled a good many matters, for persons, wo- 
men and men, too, cap in hand, came from various 
quarters, received directions, and departed rapidly. 
But there was some one knotty subject in hand. They 
stopped midway. Two men, servants evidently, came 
and were questioned, and then turned away with sub- 
dued looks, to be called up again and reproached, 
evidently. The papa at last came up the path, and 
was taken into council. Then they all advanced fur- 
ther up, and the whole thing was very serious. 
Gradually the papa got into the matter, and offered 
suggestions seemingly, but without avail. Perhaps, 
methought, some little nun has misbehaved, and must 
be punished ; but the servants would not be consulted. 
Perhaps it is a finance matter, and some tenant of the 
convent has been wanting in his dues. The principal 
lady became very serious, moved her hands up and 



A PERSUASIVE PAPA. 67 

down with decision, raised her voice, stopped in her 
walk, was clearly working herself up to something 
like violent action in some direction. All the by- 
standers looked on the ground, impressed. Now ar- 
rived the moment for the papa. He took up his pa- 
rable. He spoke for two or three minutes in a quiet, 
measured tone, gradually warming ; people's features 
relaxed ; the sternness faded from the elder's face ; she 
gave a consenting motion of her head to some position 
the papa took up ; he took advantage of it, threw in a 
rapid observation or two with a courtly bow to her, 
added something evidently conciliatory and pleasing, 
and finished with a little story, as it appeared, which 
was eminently attractive. The elder smiled, the other 
lady laughed, the papa made a grimace, the servants 
turned away relieved, and there were peace again and 
kind thoughts in the sacred precincts. Clever and 
persuasive papa ! After some very cheery conversation 
on other subjects for a few minutes, he took his leave ; 
and as he passed me on his way out we exchanged a 
polite greeting. He had won his little combat, and 
had left good will and merciful intentions behind him ; 
and as I went out and watched him hastening away at 
an easy and rapid pace over the grassy plain outside 

f 2 



68 A PARTING BENEDICTION. 

the convent wall towards some houses, where he pro- 
bably lived, I could not help sending after him men- 
tally the words, " Peace be with thee, papa ; there are 
many worse men in the world than thou." 



69 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Cow of Northern Russia — Cattle let out to Pasture — A Cow on 
its way Home — Climate and Productions of Little or Southern 
Russia— The Extent of Moscow— The Thief Market— The Police 
of Moscow — Robberies and Burglaries — Purchasers of Stolen Goods 
— Scenes of Real Life in Russia — Men of the Market — Speculating 
in Old Clothes— Ingenious Thieves and Ingenuous Victims — Sale of 
Stolen Goods — Not for the Market — Russian Character — A Hard- 
won Victory. 

TF a traveller desires to see a city and mark its ways 
and peculiarities he must go about it on foot. 
One morning I emerged early from my hotel, all the 
world still in bed, and on turning up the first street I 
met a solitary cow, She was coming leisurely down 
the raised footway unattended. Not another moving 
thing was in sight. As I stood to watch her she walk- 
ed on at a good pace, without looking round, and 
much as if she had an object in view and was not at 
all at a loss as to her direction to it. After a time she 
turned a corner, and I lost sight of her. Presently I 
met another, and after a time a third, each alone. 



70 KEEPING COWS. 

Then one came out of a gateway in front of me, and 
went on down the broad street I was following. The 
gate was closed when I reached it. It must be ac- 
knowledged that, having a liking for cows, and also a cer- 
tain bucolic discrimination as to form and colour and 
breed, I found these cows very ugly. In fact, the Russian 
cow of the North is but a plain beast. She is usually 
black and white with a rugged, ungainly shape. The 
marking, too, of the colours is displeasing to the eye. 
She is, however, by no means small. 

But now the proceedings of these cows in the early 
morning in the heart of the city, wandering alone, was 
a mystery. On inquiring I was told that throughout 
Moscow various families possess, among their worldly 
goods, a cow. Vast numbers of the larger houses have 
considerable spaces enclosed in the rear of their dwell- 
ings — gardens, courts, grassy places. Likewise the in- 
numerable cottages in the by-streets have within 
their gates green plots and outhouses. In very many 
of these there is a cow. During the summer time, 
when there is pasture, the first duty to be observed in 
all these dwellings is to open the gates and let out the 
cow. If there is delay in this performance a loud 
warning from the outhouse or the court awakes the 
servant to it. The cow let out, he may go to bed again. 



COWS ON THEIR WAY TO PASTURE. 71 

She knows her way by certain streets towards a cer- 
tain barrier of the city. As she goes other cows join 
her from other cottages or houses, and by the time 
they all arrive near the barrier they are a consider- 
able body. Here they find a man blowing a horn, 
whose business it is to conduct them to some pasture 
outside the town, to take care of them during the day, 
to collect them by his horn in the afternoon, and to 
bring them back to the barrier at a given time. 
When he has done this his business is over. Each 
cow knows her way home, and finds it unmolested 
up to the very heart of the city, the Kremlin. 
What a simple and convenient method for insuring 
good and pure and fresh milk to the family ! Each 
maier-familias can water it according to her wants 
or tastes, and she can omit the chalk — a blessed pri- 
vilege ! 

On another afternoon I was loitering about the Pa- 
lanka Square, just outside the Kitai Gorod, when 
through one of the Kitai gates, and from among the 
crowd of passengers, came a solitary cow. As she 
passed near me I could not but mark her fine form 
and full eye and glossy neck. There was no one with 
her to take care of her. I remarked this to a Swiss 
who was my companion. 



72 A COW ON HER WAY HOME. 

"Is she quite alone?" said I. 

"Of course/' lie replied; "she knows her way 
home." 

"Well, but she has just come through the Kitai, at 
its very busiest time, when its streets are crowded 
with drojkis and carts and people ; would not boys in- 
terrupt her?" 

My thoughts went off to what our London gamins 
would do under similar circumstances. 

" There is no man or boy in all Moscow would ven- 
ture to touch or interfere with that cow," said the 
Swiss ; "it would be as much as his life is worth ; at 
any hour of the day she is safe everywhere, and you 
see everybody gets out of her way to let her go home. 
Everyone is interested in every cow carrying her milk 
home to the family, and so she is under the protection 
of everybody." 

To test this, I watched the animal for some distance 
along the busy and bustling market-place, and then 
along the Boulevard ; and she held steadily on her 
way, taking her path by the gutter as long as it was 
unimpeded, and then threading her way among the 
little carts and stalls, jostling no one, and getting back 
to her line when possible, till she reached her turning- 
point, and then making it without any hesitation. 



LITTLE RUSSIA. 73 

But this cow was different from any I had seen, and 
I applied to my Swiss. 

" Ah ! yes," he said, "there is a breed in Southern 
Russia which is very fine, as large and as handsome as 
we have in Switzerland, and this is one of them." 

This Southern Russia, or Little Russia, seems by all 
accounts to be a country of many excellencies. If you 
remark a fine horse — one of those black trotters, with 
an Arab look about him — you are told, "That is of a 
breed in Southern Russia." So it is with the corn. 
Little Russia, as it is the source of the inspiration of 
Russian poets who sing of " the heavenly climate and 
the fair fields of Little Russia," so it is the mother of all 
good things — corn and wine, and horses and cows. This 
cow life of Moscow reminded me of the account given 
by the amusing author of " Bubbles from the Brunnen 
of Nassau," as to the habits and ways of life of the pigs 
of Schlangenbad. There a pig-man generally led the 
animals of the place out to their breakfast and dinner 
beyond the town, collecting them in the same way as 
the men of Moscow do their cows. I will only add 
that there is this difference between the cases of 
Schlangenbad and Moscow, that whereas the former 
is but a diminutive place where it is but a few mi- 
nutes' walk from the centre to the fields, Moscow is a 



74 SCENE IN THE PALANKA SQUARE. 

huge city. From my hotel, which was as near the 
centre as possible, I calculated that the distance was 
full three miles to any barrier. I walked from it by 
almost all of the great radiating thoroughfares to the 
several barriers, and I found that it cost me a fair 
hour of walking easily, at about a pace of three miles 
per hour. This would make the diameter of the city 
about six miles. It is declared to be twenty miles in 
circumference, and this my calculation would be in 
agreement with the general statement, because there 
is one point in the circle where there is a considerable 
projection, on the south-east, and this loop or projec- 
tion would account for the extra two miles. Thus 
the Moscow cows in many instances must walk three 
miles out in the morning for their food, and the same 
distance back again in the afternoon to their homes. My 
Southern Russian beauty must have done this, for she 
was close to my hotel when I saw her. A cow of 
this Southern breed is worth forty roubles — about six 
pounds ; but the commoner animal of the North is 
worth only about ten or twelve to twenty roubles. 

While standing on the Palanka Square, watching 
the cow, I observed a crowd of men and women at 
the corner of it, spreading across the Boulevard walk 
and into the arch of one of the gateways of the Kitai 



THE THIEF MARKET. 75 

Wall. Some of these had pairs of boots in their 
hands, others had coats hanging over their arms ; 
others again were carrying waistcoats, while many 
women were carrying women's dresses as well as the 
garments of men. Some sat on the low railing of the 
Boulevard pathway, all waiting, all talking. What 
was this ? I had observed this same collection of 
people more than once before at this same place when 
passing through the Palanka Square. 

My Swiss informant told me that just inside the 
gateway was a market, and that this crowd outside 
was only the outflow of it. Some called this the Thief 
Market; others gave it the attractive name of the 
Louse Market. It received the latter appellation from 
the fact that as it was attended by all the common- 
est and lowest and dirtiest part of the population of 
the city, there was also a very large population of 
another kind with them, and that if you went into 
the market the chances were that you would bring 
out with you in your clothes more life than you car- 
ried in. The reason of the other name was, that all 
the articles one saw in the hands or on the arms of 
the men and women were considered to be the pro- 
duce of robberies. 

" But," said I, "what do the police in such a case? 



76 POLICE OF MOSCOW. 

I see some of them standing about in their uniforms." 

u The police do nothing," he replied — "that is, they 
only do what suits them." 

The police of Moscow, it appeared, are a very pe- 
culiar body of men. Their business, of course, is to 
search into all acts of robbery, and to discover, if they 
can, the robbers ; but then their next business is to 
make all the money they can out of the case for them- 
selves. They are badly paid by the Government, 
and when they have discovered the thief they keep 
the discovery close. It is a valuable piece of know- 
ledge, and not to be parted with but for a considera- 
tion. Now the Government have already paid their 
share of the premium, but if the robber will pay 
something handsome more than the Government, 
then the interest of the police is on the side of the 
higher premium— the robber. Thus there are con- 
tinual robberies and burglaries, one nearly every 
night, in Moscow. Every man and householder must 
take care of himself and his goods. The police are, 
if anything, rather against him. The robbers are a 
mine of wealth to them. This is a very curious state 
of things in this beautiful and highly-civilized city, 
the capital of a great country. Here was an open 
market, under the nose of the police, for stolen goods 



INGENUITY OF EUSSIAN THIEVES. 77 

— the police in a manner in league with the thieves 
and profiting by the plunder. 

These people who were selling were not the actual 
thieves, but were the purchasers at low prices of the 
stolen goods. It was difficult to believe that such a 
known and understood system could go on ; but then 
Russia is a country which is in a transition state be- 
tween one social condition and another. I made' some 
remark about the police, and this market offering a 
premium on robbery, when my companion observed, 
" It is a premium on ingenuity. No one in the world 
is more ingenious than a Russian about money," and he 
related the following circumstances connected with this 
market : — 

" One day lately a man brought a watch here for 
sale, and sold it. Another watched the sale, marked 
the buyer, and followed him. Passing through one 
of the Kitai gates, he, the follower, met a soldier, to 
whom he said a few words, giving him a rouble. 
They both came up to the purchaser of the watch. 
Said the man, addressing the purchaser, 1 Friend, you 
have bought a watch in the market — it is mine^j it 
was stolen from me last night.' ' How do I know 
that?' replied the other ; 'what was your watch like?' 
The man described the watch, adding, £ Here, show it 



78 CURIOSITIES OF CRIME. 

to my friend, this soldier ; he knows it well.' Of 
course, on seeing it, the soldier swore fiercely to it as 
his friend's watch. 'Now,' said the man, ' you give 
me up my watch, or I follow you till we meet a 
policeman, and I tell him all about it.' The man gave 
up the watch, and the other went back into the mar- 
ket and sold it." 

A second case the Swiss related : — 

" A rich fur cloak was sold in this market. Two 
men marked the buyer go and pawn it. These men 
in the evening disguised themselves as police, and go- 
ing to the pawnbroker, a Jew, they said, ' You have 
a fur cloak ' — describing it — ' pawned to you to-day. 
We are in search of that cloak ; it was stolen some 
days since,' ' Well,' said the Jew, ■ there it is. I 
lent forty roubles on it; if you pay me that sum, there 
is the cloak.' ' Pay you forty roubles ! The Govern- 
ment does not pay for the recovery of stolen goods. 
If you do not give it up, you must come before the 
authorities, and you may lose your licence.' So the 
Jew, being frightened, gave up the cloak, which the 
men, their disguise throAvn off, brought and sold in 
the Thief Market the next day. 

I walked on with my companion along the Boule- 
vard outside the Kitai wall, down the hill to the round 



MEN OF THE MARKET. 79 

tower at the corner, where the wall strikes on the 
Moskwa. Near the tower, and on the road by the 
river, I observed three or four ill-dressed, scampish 
men hanging about, scattered, but evidently of one 
party. It is rather a lonely corner. There are no 
houses, as on the opposite side of the Boulevard is the 
long low wall of the garden of the large Foundling 
Hospital, which stands at a considerable distance from 
the corner. Presently a lad came along the road by the 
Hospital wall, and turned up the Boulevard. He had 
a rather bulky bundle under one arm. In a moment 
one of the men made a dash at the boy, and caught 
hold of the bundle. The others hurried up, and the 
boy was surrounded. u Men of the Market," said my 
companion. The boy pushed on up the pathway of 
the Boulevard, the men all eager in manner and ani- 
mated in gesture, evidently bent on learning what 
was in the bundle. As the boy passed the round 
tower which abuts on the pathway the men got quite 
round him, and partly by persuasive offers to buy, 
and partly by a certain good-natured violence, they 
forced him into a recess of the Kitai wall and the tower. 
I strolled back to see the result. In the recess the 
bundle was opened, the contents spread on the ground 
— apparently various articles of men's clothing — all 



80 SPECULATING IN OLD CLOTHES. 

the men kneeling round and examining them closely, 
the boy seated. It was his little shop j and the men 
in turn were chattering, gesticulating, making offers 
for the goods with eager depreciation. Now and 
then one got up and pretended to come away in utter 
disgust at the price demanded, and then went back 
again, as if for one last effort. After a time the boy 
got up and left them, went round the tower with a 
quick step and a satisfied countenance, but without his 
bundle : and as he walked along under the Hospital 
wall by the river he was counting something in his two 
hands very earnestly. 

" He got his money," said the Swiss, with a laugh. 
" Now they will go to the market." 

The men emerged from the recess, one of them with 
the bundle under his arm. He went on his way up 
the Boulevard under the Kitai wall towards the Thief 
Market, and the other three turned again towards the 
river. The goods were stolen, and the man had bought 
them on speculation. 

Scarcely was the boy out of sight when a man ap- 
peared walking along the road by the Hospital. He 
was neatly dressed, and had the look of a servant. 
He, too, had a bundle under his arm. The men 
watched his approach, and the moment he turned the 



NOT FOR THE MAKKET. 81 

corner of the wall to go up the Boulevard instead of 
going on by the river, they hurried across after him, 
and one, going up to his side, put out his hand and 
tapped the bundle. The man merely looked over his 
shoulder, nodded and laughed, saying in a cheery 
way, "No, no, not for the market," and went on. 
The two returned leisurely to their companion, who 
had continued lounging by the low river wall and 
looking down at the water, and who now called out 
to them with a laugh, " I told you so." He was priding 
himself on his better perception that this neatly-dressed 
man was not a customer for the market. This corner 
of the Kitai wall, by the Boulevard and the Hospital, 
was evidently a little manor on which these sporting 
gentlemen took their daily diversion. Here they lay 
in wait and watched for their game. Here, by that 
quiet river road up to this solitary corner the game 
was sure to come ; and here they brought it down and 
bagged it, their weapons being their wits and a few 
roubles. Just up the hill was their sure market. 
How quickly they turned over their little floating 
capital ! 

One day, standing by a window in my hotel on the 
Boulevard, watching the endless novelty of figures 
passing along the pathway in front, I witnessed a new 

G 



82 ALTERCATION WITH A JEW. 

scene of " The Market." I think it must be allowed 
to the Russians as a people that they are by no means 
an ill-tempered or a quarrelsome race. During all 
the time of my stay in Russia I never once saw two 
men fight, or even have a violent contention beyond 
a few passionate words. They appeared to be a 
singularly easy and kindly-tempered people. You 
may witness more rudeness and roughness between 
man and man in gesture and voice in one hour in 
Paris than you will see in Moscow in a month. This 
scene by the Kitai wall before the hotel was redolent 
of " The Market." A middle-aged man, apparently a 
Jew by his dress, was walking quietly along the path- 
way with a bundle under his arm. A man and woman 
of the small shopkeeper class met him, and something 
induced the woman to turn round after passing the 
Jew and look after him. The two parties had not 
recognised each other. Now the woman went up be- 
hind the Jew and peered at the bundle, and then she 
snatched at it. The Jew turned short round and 
caught the bundle with his other hand, and then 
there began an altercation. The woman gesticulated 
violently, pointing with one hand to the bundle, which 
she grasped with the other. The man, her companion, 
came up and looked on. The woman appealed to 



the Hebrew's purchase. 83 

him, and the Jew appealed to him. The passers-by 
stopped ; and the Jew and the woman so pulled and 
tugged at the poor bundle, that, of course, it burst 
open, and then a woman's dress appeared. Now the 
man seemed to recognise this, and he too entered the 
lists against the Jew. I must say the Hebrew bore 
all this outrageous conduct of these two strangers with 
much patience. It had the look of a highway rob- 
bery with violence in broad day. The Jew was the 
injured person, and all he did was to hold on to his 
property and call out something continually in a 
piteous tone, which I could not distinguish. Still he 
held on pertinaciously, as any man would under the 
circumstances, and more especially a tenacious man of 
the proverbial tribes. All this unseemly squabble 
arose out of that odious mother of corrupt ingenuity, 
"The Market," just up the hill in the Kitai gateway. 
On inquiring, it appeared that the Jew had purchased 
a woman's dress in the market, " quite promiscuous," 
as Mrs. Gamp would say, and was carrying it home, 
when, by ill-luck, the owner — for it had been stolen, 
of course — caught a glimpse of a corner of it peeping 
out of the wrapping kerchief under the Hebrew's arm 
as he passed. The woman's wits were all alive, for 
she was with her husband on her way to the market 

g 2 



84 UNSEEMLY SQUABBLE. 

on the chance of finding the missing dress there on 
sale. "When the kerchief was pulled off, and the whole 
of the lost treasure of her heart, in all its beauty and 
loveliness, was exposed to view, naturally she was ex- 
cited to madness, as any woman would be. For a 
full quarter of an hour the struggle went on, the Jew 
holding on by the dress by the middle, while the 
woman held one end of it, and the husband the other. 
Nobody interfered, but a little crowd stopped to watch 
the result The three pulled and pushed each other 
all over the broad footway, from the low railing on 
one side to the low railing on the other, now under 
the low lime-trees, and now in the open. No police- 
man appeared ; and so the tussle went on uninter- 
rupted. The Jew never attempted to pull away the 
dress, but only to hold on to it with his little wiry 
arms locked round it, sometimes forced one way by 
the superior strength of the man, and then the other 
by the passionate violence of the woman, and some- 
times staggering under a united rush of the two. At 
last he was nearly down on his back, when, in his 
efforts to save himself from falling, the dress slipped 
from his grasp, and he stood a dishevelled and dis- 
comfited man. And then began a parley, which 
lasted another ten minutes, over the garment. Clearly 



A DEARLY-BOUGHT VICTORY. 85 

there was matter for negotiation, as is the case with 
greater powers after a campaign fought and won. 
They all went up the pathway, and getting over the 
low rail on to the grass went together to a recess in 
the wall of the Kitai. There it appeared the woman 
was induced to part with her dress for a consideration, 
for, the parley ended, the Hebrew rolled up his prize 
in his kerchief, and walked down the Boulevard till he 
came to a bench just opposite my window. Here, 
under one of the dwarf limes, he sat down to recover 
himself after his long battle. It was a dearly-bought 
victory, as I daresay he confessed to himself, for he 
had suffered in his person, and, worse than that, he 
had had to pay money a second time from his purse 
for his prize. 



86 



CHAPTER VII. 

Beds in Hotels — Rapid Improvement — Russian Noblemen on their 
Travels in Former Days — Change produced by Railways — M. 
Dusaux's Hotel and Cuisine — Interior of a Russian Hotel — View 
from my Window on the Boulevard — Carriages — The Public 
Rooms — Russian Waiters — Devotional Character of the People — 
Scene at Wilna — National Costume — Property held by Serfs — A 
Cossack Chief — Peasants on their way to Market — Riding and 
Driving — A Carriage of Primitive Construction — Adventure with a 
"Spider." 

A N amusing writer of some letters on Russia, and 
more particularly on Moscow, in the year of the 
coronation of the present Czar, in 1856, is eloquent 
on the subject of the beds in the hotels. A bedstead 
and a mattress, he tells us, were provided in his day 
for the traveller, but anything like bedding, such as 
pillows and blankets and sheets, the stranger must 
himself provide, or do without. But it is surprising 
with what rapid stride alterations and improvements 
advance into hitherto benighted corners of the social 
world in these latter years. It is not many lustres 



RUSSIAN NOBLEMEN ON THEIR TRAVELS. 87 

ago that any Russian nobleman, on his journey into 
France or Germany in his huge family vehicle — 
which was always as much more capacious than the 
travelling-carriage of any great man of either of 
these two countries as Russia is larger than Gaul 
or Teutonia — having ordered beds at an inn for 
the night for his family, gave no thought of beds for 
his many retainers. These latter passed their nights 
in the roomy carriages, or on mattresses in open cor- 
ridors. Out of those capacious vehicles what piles of 
pillows and bedding the eyes of wondering onlookers 
saw emerge. These were not only useful on the 
journey over the lengthening Russian wastes by day, 
but were indispensable at the inns by night. But, 
tempora mutantur, the railroads have altered all this 
for the better. Now in the towns of Russia where 
the railway brings its civilizing influences, the tra- 
veller finds his bedroom furnished with goods from 
Paris or Berlin via St. Petersburg. 

At Moscow there is a house kept by Monsieur 
Dusaux, a Frenchman, well situated on the Boulevard 
outside the Kitai wall. This house was my habitation 
while at Moscow. Monsieur Dusaux is a pattern 
landlord — courteous, unassuming, obliging, attentive 
to his guests. It is true that having been for some 



88 M. DUSAUx's HOTEL. 

years chef in the establishment of an ambassador of- 
his own country, and his affections and habits being 
still in the cuisine, he looks after that department of 
his own hotel with a never-failing solicitude and 
leaves the general management of the house to an 
active and intelligent German intendant. But I found 
this an admirable division of labour, inasmuch as M. 
Dusaux's cuisine was, in consequence of his careful 
supervision and skilful hand, worthy of Paris in all 
respects. The German intendant spoke English 
fluently, knew everything in Moscow, and was worth 
his weight in roubles in the matter of making bar- 
gains for the stranger with that bargain-loving race, 
the Moscow shopkeepers. 

The entrance of a Russian hotel is modest. It is 
not a grand gateway, with an interior court, as in 
France or Germany, but is a simple doorway, as in 
England. The hotel of Monsieur Dusaux was a 
long and low house. Immediately inside the entrance 
door was a broad flight of stairs to the first floor, and 
on my arrival on reaching this I found a wide plat- 
form with a door on my left opening into a suite of 
handsome public rooms, and on my right a spacious 
corridor leading to the private apartments. The Ger- 
man superintendent appeared at once, and guessing 



VIEW FROM MY WINDOW. 89 

in an instant my country, without a question led me 
along the corridor to its extremity, and into a hand- 
some well-furnished bright room adapted for a bed- 
room and sitting-room for a single man. I felt at 
home in a moment. If I had had a choice of all Paris 
or London I could not have taken up my abode in 
one more to my liking. There were sofa, tables, 
chairs, mirrors ; while an ornamental screen shut off 
the sleeping part of the room. Across the short gap 
of time since 1856 and the amusing letters from Mos- 
cow what a leap — from barbarism into refinement ! 

My room was at a commanding corner of the house, 
two windows in front " giving," as the French say, on 
the Boulevard, and other two looking up the said 
Boulevard to the Palanka Square, or market-place, 
as well as into another broad street. In my front, 
and beyond the Boulevard and a promenade planted 
with dwarf lime-trees, stretched away to the right 
and left the white and picturesque and battlemented 
wall of the Kitai Gorod with its round towers or bas- 
tions at intervals. Precisely opposite to my windows 
was a small arch pierced in the wall, a flight of steps 
leading up to it, a passage for pedestrians into the 
Kitai. It was a sunny day in the beginning of 
August, and my windows looked south and west. 



90 PUBLIC ROOMS. 

The Boulevard was all alive with carriages of strange 
construction : droschky, tarantass, spider-carriage, coun- 
try waggons, all on four wheels ; one on two wheels 
being a rare object — I scarcely saw a vehicle on two 
wheels of any kind during all my stay in Russia, — 
while foot-passengers in every kind of costume, ex- 
cept our accustomed one of the West, filled the pro- 
menade, hurrying on business, or strolling at their 
ease, or sitting on benches beneath the shade of the 
limes. I felt at once launched into the very centre 
of everything — close to theatres, markets, the Kitai, 
and the Kremlin. 

In an hour from my arrival I had shaken off the 
effects of my night journey from St. Petersburg, an 
affair of twenty hours, and was sitting on a divan in 
one of the public rooms by a window looking on the 
novel and moving panorama of the Boulevard, and 
deeply concerned in a dish from M. Dusaux's own 
skilful hand. These public rooms were charming. 
Imagine three handsome and lofty apartments en suite 
to the front and a pretty cabinet beyond, the first 
room furnished in green velvet hangings and similar 
covering of chairs and divans, the second in crimson 
and grey silk moreen, the third in blue velvet, and 
the little cabinet in blue and white. Small round 



TARTAR WAITERS. 91 

tables stood in front of the divans, and comfortable 
large arm-chairs were everywhere ; mirrors covered 
the walls at intervals from the ceiling to the divans, 
and gas lamps with four or five burners were sus- 
pended in the centres ; the doors were fitted with 
rich, heavy portieres, as defences against the cold in 
winter. Nothing could be more scrupulously clean 
and fresh than were these rooms at any hour of the 
day or night, and nothing could be more pleasing to 
the eye, or more gratifying to one's sense of luxuri- 
ous surrounding, than their taste and order and good 
keeping. Four men in black, with white neckcloths 
— the costume de rigueur of all waiters in Russia at 
hotels or stations under the new railway reign — were 
in attendance on these rooms, and greater civility or 
readiness or more noiseless waiting no one could 
desire. These men were all Tartars. They were of 
dark complexion, rather high cheek bones, mild coun- 
tenances, pleasing voices, and had all that peculiar 
look of the men of the East — the jet-black hair, the 
colourless skin, the full lip and the veiled eye. Each 
morning of my stay on entering the middle room I 
found a certain table by one of the divans, com- 
manding a window to the Boulevard, prepared for 
me with all the freshness and brightness of a Paris 



92 RUSSIAN PIETY. 

salon, the beautiful Moscow porcelain fanciful in co- 
lour and novel and graceful in form, the room cool 
with shading blinds ; and often either my attentive 
landlord or the intelligent intendant paid me a visit 
during breakfast to offer any information on Moscow 
and the Muscovites I might desire. 

Every day I witnessed scenes very curious to the eye 
of a stranger, in front of my windows, in connection 
with the small arch for foot passengers through the 
Kitai wall. Above the arch was fixed a small picture 
of the Virgin in a gilt frame, and scarcely did a pedes- 
trian, unless he was a foreigner, ever go up these 
steps, or come down them, or pass in front of the 
arch up or down the promenade, without a reverence 
to the picture. How often from my window I re- 
marked the general devotion of this people ! The 
greater number would kneel down, uncover their 
heads, and cross themselves three times, while many 
did this to the number of three times three. And as it 
was with people on foot, so it was with people in car- 
riages ; as these went by, droschkies, telegas, taran- 
tasses, strings of the common telegas laden with coun- 
try produce, the drivers of all these various vehicles, 
almost without exception, would salute that little pic- 
ture some twenty yards off above the arch, and cross 



DEVOTION TO THE VIRGIN. 93 

themselves, bare-headed, three times. I thought I 
could distinguish that the lower the man or woman 
in the social scale the more earnest was the devotion 
— the more vigorous the crossing. Officers in their 
droschkies saluted it, ladies in their carriages did the 
same, but without stopping ; whereas in numerous in- 
stances country people would dismount from their 
telegas and kneel in mid-roadway. Frequently per- 
sons coming down the cross street at my corner would 
stop at the angle, and kneel uncovered on the foot 
pavement. I could not hear that that little image 
had ever been credited with any high spiritual act to 
account for all this veneration ; but it was the Virgin, 
and this seemed to be sufficient. To a Protestant, who 
lives in an undemonstrative society such as that of Eng- 
land or Germany, this warmth of feeling, or, at least, 
outward expression of it, is a surprise. He sees so 
little of it even in France or Italy, in Roman Catholic 
countries even where such externals are encouraged, 
that he is quite unprepared for the general and per- 
sistent exhibition of it in any country. In passing 
through Prussia, on my way into Russia, I of course 
saw nothing of this kind anywhere, not even in the 
Roman Catholic parts of it, whereas I had hardly 
crossed the frontier and entered the first town, Wih 



94 A QUERY. 

na, before I found knots of people on their knees, 
uncovered, in the middle of one of the streets — sol- 
diers, peasants, gentry, offering their devotion to an 
unseen figure of the Virgin. There was an archway 
across the street, and above this was built a diminu- 
tive chapel, and over the altar, and concealed by a 
green curtain, was the picture to which all these peo- 
ple in Wilna were bowing down. What a radical 
difference in mind and thought within the distance of 
a few miles ! So now, in front of my window on the 
Boulevard, was a repetition of the Wilna scene. 

The query to myself then and since still is — -is this 
a really devout people, in whom there is a stronger 
sense of religion than in other races, and in whom 
this sense will last, and be a perpetual bond, to 
unite them and aid them to work out a grand fate in 
the history of the world ? Or is it only the result of 
their present social condition — one of much seclusion 
from the active and stirring world — one of limited 
knowledge and of a forced subjection to conventional 
habits — a forced submission to the strong hand of 
domestic power and ecclesiastical schooling? Any- 
how, there is the expression now. But, then, will 
this continue in its present vigour and earnestness ? — 
continue, now that freedom has come to the serf, and 



RUSSIAN COSTUME. 95 

railways are bringing the depths of Russia into con- 
tact with the outer world, with education and all its 
doubts and all its demands on men to throw off the 
shackles of custom and thought and to trust to their 
own powers of reason — education, with all its science, 
and all its astounding novelties, and its defiance and 
overthrow of old-established ways ? Anyhow my win- 
dow on the Boulevard offered me a fresh page in life. 

As a rule every man in Russia wears a long 
coat, one which reaches nearly to his heels. At 
first sight you think that every man is wearing 
his great-coat, even on a hot summer day. But 
it is not so. This long heavy garment, and the 
high black boots reaching to the knee on the outside 
of all kinds of pantaloons, are the distinguishing points 
of the dress of a Russian. All other parts of his dress 
may vary, but these two articles, the coat and the 
boots, they belong to the man. They have a good 
effect, too, independent of their substantial usefulness, 
as they impart to the wearer an air of size and weight 
and strength which is manly. Now among the men 
passing continually along the promenade, of course 
wearing the unfailing coat and boots, there were some 
of a certain character of dress which was striking. 

o 

Sometimes these were four or five in company, some- 



96 NATIONAL PEASANT COSTUME. 

times one alone, but the dress was almost always the 
same. Let me describe it. Below were the in- 
dispensable boots, very neatly made, with a consi- 
derable attention to cut. The feet were often finely 
and delicately formed. The boots reached to the 
knee, to which descended a full knickerbocker of 
black cloth, often of black velvet. A scarlet cotton 
tunic reached to the middle of the thigh, and over the 
upper part of this tunic was a black velvet waistcoat 
with ornamental metal buttons, closed up to the neck. 
The large flowing dark coat and a small dark cloth 
cap on the head completed the attire. It was singu- 
larly handsome and manly. On inquiring who these 
men were of whom I saw such numbers, I was told 
" They are peasants ; the other day they were serfs — 
now they are free." This, it appeared, is the dress of 
those peasants who are well-to-do — -men who have 
saved money. I then saw that there were numbers 
of other men who wore this same dress — that is, the 
fashion of it — only that all the material was coarser 
and commoner, ruder and dirtier, and that in fact 
this was the national peasant costume. The difference 
was that these well-dressed men were the dandies of 
their class — the upper crust— and all the material be- 
ing richer and brighter in colour, the effect was en- 



WEALTHY PEASANTS. 97 

hanced. This is, in fact, the national dress of the 
Russian. 

Vast numbers throughout the empire of this class 
had been allowed by their masters to enter into trade 
and commerce in the cities, where many of them were 
successful, saved money, and bought plots of land in 
the country, or a cottage in Moscow, or a house. 
Some of these men are even wealthy, have become 
owners of parts of the villages in which they were 
originally serfs, and even of mills and manufactories 
on the properties of their former masters. While the 
state of serfdom continued, with all the power of 
coercion by the master, and its bonds on the liberty 
of action of the peasant, these facts were kept out of 
sight as much as possible, for fear of results of which 
the machinery was legally in the masters' hands ; but 
when serfdom ceased the use of concealment ceased, 
and then appeared the fact so remarkable of an im- 
mense body of serfs possessing property in house and 
land. 

Among the passengers along the Boulevard was 
frequently a fine tall elderly man, dressed in a light 
grey coat of a coarse material, Cossack boots, and a 
round grey cap with a wide border of dark fur all 
round it, forming in a manner a heavy projecting 

H 



98 A COSSACK CHIEF. 

brim. He was a grand figure, erect and rather cor- 
pulent. The features were fine, the eyes grey and 
still bright, and the whole countenance mild and 
noble. He appeared to be always sauntering about 
at his ease and leisure. I admired him so much that 
we struck up a kind of acquaintance. We could not 
converse, but we always made a kind of shew of talk. 
I would say good morning to him in Russian and in- 
quire for his health, and he would reply something in 
Cossack. This man had once been a Cossack chief, 
but his tribe subdued, his occupation gone of burning 
villages and capturing spoil, he lived at Moscow. 
Some said he had a small allowance from Govern- 
ment, and would wish that it were so and the old 
chief not quite thrown on the world ; but his principal 
means of living were declared to be vicarious charity. 
He certainly begged of me always with his large cap 
in his hand. It was a humiliating position for the 
fine old man ; but our muttered talk always ended in 
one way — mutual smiles and partial kopecks. He al- 
ways took them with an air as though we had been 
two chiefs. Thus — " My friend, let me offer you this 
gold drinking-cup, a spoil from the slaughtered enemy, 
as a proof of a tried and enduring friendship.— My 
friend, I accept willingly the goblet, and will do as 



PEASANTRY ON THEIR WAY TO MARKET. 99 

much for you on occasion when our steeds trample on 
the throats of the vanquished." This was the senti- 
ment of our occasional meeting on the promenade. 
This old chieftain always reminded me of the promi- 
nent figure in one of the Cossack tales of Gogol, 
the Russian writer, Tarass Boolba. Here were the 
grand form, the Eastern face, the dark complexion, 
the air of the chieftain in figure and countenance. He 
looked like a man of lineage, one who had swayed the 
council in the Zaporoghian Ssiecha, and was now but 
a temporary sojourner in the streets of Moscow. 

The Russian is a patient man. The Boulevard ran 
up with a rather considerable rise from the hotel to 
the Palanka Square ; and in the mornings when the. 
peasantry were arriving for the market on that square, 
their creaking and frail-looking telegas heavily laden 
with country produce, not to mention the wife and 
old mother and two or three children piled on the 
top — these telegas would come by in a string of twenty 
at a time — there was very often a hard fight of the 
little horse to get up that last hill. These peasant 
horses were generally but undersized and weakly 
things, worth about ten roubles — twenty-five shillings. 
What a number of jibbers I used to watch. Not even 
the vigorous crossings and earnest prayers to the lit- 

h 2 



100 UNLIMITED PATIENCE. 

tie picture of the Virgin above the arch in the Kitai 
wall just opposite and looking out on the fatal pitch 
of the hill, were of any avail in many cases. It would 
seem as if the Virgin only ventured as a reply to all 
the entreaties for help the cold-blooded advice, " Aide- 
toi et le ciel t'aidera." 

There stood the little horses jibbing in spite of 
prayers and advice. But the Russian never beat his 
horse or became angry. He seemed to be gifted with 
an unlimited patience. The family would continue 
piled up on the top of the load as if they had no con- 
cern in the matter. If the horse could manage in the 
course of the morning to get them all up to the Pa- 
lanka, well and good, — hut if he could not, then they 
must stay there and bear it. Getting down as a mea- 
sure of help in the question did not seem to occur to 
the comfortable dames. The poor little horse would 
struggle about half-way up the pitch, just above my 
corner, and then, utterly spent, he would give it up as 
a bad job and let the whole thing go back sideways 
into the gutter. Another little party just behind 
would go through much the same performance, the 
gutter being the ultimate result of both. Then would 
begin an affair of talk. Passengers stopped to look 
on and give advice. After resting a bit the little horse 



TREATMENT OF JIBBING HORSES. 101 

would be roused by a shower of goading reproaches 
to an effort ; but he evidently knew that he was better 
off in the gutter, for a time, at all events, and so he 
would shake his head in reply to the abuse, make a 
sudden spasmodic rush, pretend to fall down on his 
knees, and then let the whole thing roll back again. 
The peasant would blow him up savagely, and threat- 
en to do the cruellest things with his whip, but he 
never struck him. This kind of performance was of 
daily occurrence. At last it always terminated in a 
loose horse being brought down from the Palanka by 
a friend, and the goods and the imperturbable women 
all arriving in the market in their dignified position. It 
is claimed for the Russian, by those who have lived 
some years in that country, that he is by no means of 
a hard or cruel nature, but, on the contrary, that he is 
of a mild and patient disposition. Certainly this treat- 
ment of the jibbing horses on the Boulevard was a 
testimony to the truth of this account. 

Among their exercises of skill, I should not say 
that driving horses was the distinguishing excellence 
of the men of the upper ten thousand. They have 
little practice of this when young, as it is the universal 
custom to be driven and not to drive. The boys of a 
family, even where there is a stable of horses, as a 



102 A PKIMITIVE VEHICLE. 

rule neither ride nor drive. I never saw any man 
of that class on horseback, or with the reins in his 
hand, except here and there a cavalry officer, — with 
one exception. There is a small, fanciful carriage on 
which young officers, ambitious of the art of driving, 
now and then try their inexperienced hands to pilot it 
through the streets. This is the smallest and the light- 
est, and indeed the most absurd of vehicles. It con- 
sists of one narrow plank connecting two pairs of 
wheels of a diameter of about three feet. Suspended 
from the plank by leather straps are two shoes, like 
those of a lady's saddle, for the driver's feet. There 
are no springs. 

Anything more thoroughly primitive, but more 
thoroughly uncomfortable, than one of these spider 
carriages cannot well be imagined. One day a young 
Russian gentleman drove one of these up the boulevard 
under my window, and pulled up at the door of a 
shop on the slope of the hill. Having no servant with 
him he gave the long reins a turn or two round one 
of the line of low stone posts which border and sup- 
port the raised footway, by the shop door. The horse 
was a remarkably neat grey of the South Russian breed, 
Arab-looking, light, young, and rather awkward in his 
going, and his driver struck me as essentially raw. The 



AN IMPATIENT HORSE. 103 

whole thing, indeed, appeared new and strange to both 
horse and driver. The carriage was a toy, bright and 
shining, the boxes of the wheels silvered, and the har- 
ness elaborate and silver-mounted. I looked on the 
hitching the horse to the stone post with a doubt. 

The young man went into the shop and remained 
some time. The horse thus left to himself began to 
chafe on his bit, and then he moved from side to side, 
now getting away till he was stopped by the rein 
round the post, and then half falling down as he 
yawed back again to the raised pathway and stumbled 
up on to it. Becoming impatient, and the young man 
not returning, the horse went forward a pace or two 
till the rein pulled him up, and then after a shake or 
two of his head went backwards. This did very 
well for a time ; but by degrees he backed so far that 
he passed the post, and the rein began to pull on him 
backwards. The more he went back, the more the 
rein pulled him back. But it acted unequally, the 
outer or off rein shortening and the near one slacking. 
Thus his head was gagged and pulled round over his 
back ; and so he stumbled up the footway, lost his 
footing, and tumbled over on his back on the pitch of 
the pathway, and slipped down between the shafts, all 
his four feet in the air. Just at that moment the 



104 RESULTS OF DRIVING THE " SPIDER." 

young man came out of the shop and found his horse 
and carriage in this awkward predicament. He com- 
menced running up and down the pathway, not know- 
ing where to begin to set matters to rights. Luckily 
the horse after a struggle or two lay quiet, gagged as he 
was. Two or three men ran up, more accustomed to 
horses than the owner ; and having set the head of the 
animal free, they put on a good many hands, and by 
main force hauling on the head and the tail, they fairly 
pulled him out of the gutter and over the shaft, and 
set the little Arab on his legs again — none the worse. 
The young gentleman seemed to consider the whole 
matter a very serious one, and that driving the spider 
might have results not altogether consistent with safety 
or pleasure ; so after hesitating for a time whether he 
should or should not mount again on that thin plank, 
he eventually decided against it ; and so handing over 
the smart little turn-out to one of the men who had 
hauled on the Arab's tail, with many directions, he 
went away ingloriously, " Equo non bene relicto," on 
foot, 



105 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Foundling Hospital — Extent and Purpose of the Establishment- 
Crown Governesses — Russian Capacity for Governing — A Sunday 
Visit to the Hospital — The Buildings and Grounds — Internal Ar- 
rangements — Courtesy of an Official — The Chapel — The Pupils in 
Uniform — The Service — The Priest — The Responses — The Nurseries 
— Costume of the Nurses — The Superintendents — Messengers, Ser- 
vants, and Attendants — The Nurses at Dinner — Number of Orphans 
received Daily — Another Visit to the Chapel — The Choir — The 
Papa — Theatrical Manner of the Russo- Greek Priests — The Gallery 
of Paintings — The Play Room. 

IjlVERY stranger pays a visit to the Institution 
called the Foundling Hospital. This is not 
merely a place for the reception and treatment of 
little unfortunates, but is likewise a school for a 
large number of girls, orphans, who are daughters of 
indigent servants of the Crown. There are about 
seven hundred of these young persons at one time in 
the building, and these receive a liberal education in 
the Institution, while on leaving it they are provided 
with an outfit and enjoy small salaries according to the 
certificates which they have gained in their examination. 



106 THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 

For six years after leaving, these young persons are 
bound to devote themselves to the Crown as govern- 
esses or school teachers in the Empire, except in cases 
of marriage, when they are free from this obligation, 
and also lose their salaries. 

Of the foundlings there are about twelve thousand 
received here in each year. They only remain in the 
building for a few weeks, and then are sent off into 
the villages where they are taken charge of by 
nurses at a regular charge. As the boys grow up they 
are taught trades, and the girls are instructed in suit- 
able employments, many of them returning to the hos- 
pital as nurses and attendants, and even as superiors 
in the separate departments, according to their capa- 
city or character. It is a noble establishment in all its 
detail, in its double purpose of a charity and a school. 

It is claimed for the Russian that he possesses the 
capacity for governing men, a power which involves 
a fine sense of order and a talent for detail. This is 
declared to be the foundation of his superiority over 
the more highly-educated and more refined Pole on 
the west, and the more numerous and more warlike 
nations on his eastern borders. It is impossible to go 
through the Foundling Hospital without being struck 
with the admirable order and completeness of detail, 



A CURSORY VISIT. 107 

the brilliant cleanliness and the attention to health, 
which reign throughout all the departments of this 
magnificent establishment. There is nothing superior 
to it in any country in all the substantial richness of 
material employed and the intelligent knowledge dis- 
played in carrying out the object in view. It is a 
specimen of Russian ability to manage an institution 
on a large scale, and a witness to the claim put for- 
ward for them of a capacity for governing. There 
are those who blame this institution on the ground of 
encouraging immorality ; but on this I offer no 
opinion. 

I shall not offer here the statistics of the Foundling 
Hospital — these are in print in many books already ; 
but I shall merely state what pleased me in a cursory 
visit. On inquiry as to the best time to see this fa- 
mous establishment, I was asked, " Why do you not 
go on Sunday morning and hear the singing ? — all 
the young ladies sing in the chapel." Accordingly, on 
the next Sunday morning at ten o'clock I walked by the 
Palanka Market along the Boulevard. It was a hot Au- 
gust day, and in August Moscow becomes something 
more than dusty. Turning off the dusty Boulevard by 
a gateway I found myself within the premises, cool, 
shaded, quiet, clean. A road bordered by trees on 



108 THE BUILDING AND GROUNDS. 

either side ran along by a great garden wall and 
penetrated into the interior of the grounds at the 
back of the fine extensive pile, the front of which faced 
the river. Here, away from the glare and noise and 
dust, everything was scrupulously neat and in order 
— the roadway, the trees, the outer detached build- 
ings, where resided some of the officers of the estab- 
lishment, the circular plot of grass and flower-garden, 
in which was a small ornamental pavilion and around 
which some nurses were sitting and some children at 
play. As there is no smoke in Moscow everything 
was as fresh as if twenty miles separated this garden 
from the great city, instead of its being in the very 
middle of it. Going up to the great entrance I found 
in the hall a porter in the same Imperial livery for 
porters in the Kremlin — a scarlet great-coat with a 
cape reaching from his chin to his feet. On inquiring 
for the chapel I was at once directed to a broad 
flight of stone stairs, and on reaching a corridor at 
the top I was led inside an ante-room and desired to 
wait. While standing here I could hear the echo of 
many female voices singing in chorus at a distance. 
Presently an officer in a green uniform, a man of 
forty years of age with an agreeable countenance 
approached from another corridor, and coming up to 



THE CHAPEL. 109 

me with a smile, held out his hand with a frank, cor- 
dial manner, and asked me in French what I re- 
quired. When I said I wished, if that could be per- 
mitted, to hear the singing in the chapel, he at once 
drew me along by the hand into the corridor by 
which he had come, and along it in the direction of 
the voices. This corridor was broad and lofty, like 
that of a palace, lit by large deep embayed windows, 
and floored with a fine polished parquet. Men in 
livery, and women in a peculiar style of coloured 
cap and apron, were standing about in knots in the 
windows and recesses. Beyond these the corridor 
opened at once into the chapel. Here were the 
whole seven hundred young persons in three divis- 
ions, and I found myself in a moment face to face 
with this imposing body, all standing up and fronting 
the altar, from behind which the officer and I had 
entered. The effect was rather startling. However, 
the officer led me to one of the usual large pillars 
near the screen or Ikonostas, and then, slipping away 
to his own place by another, left me standing in this 
most prominent situation, where I certainly could 
hear and see everything, but where every movement 
on my part during the service was open to the criti- 
cism of so many hundred young eyes. Happily in 



110 THE SINGERS. 

these foreign churches all that a stranger is expected 
to do is to stand quite still. 

The chapel was arranged in the usual form of the 
Greek Church with its four immense pillars ; but as 
in this case these were only here for the sake of carry- 
ing out the conventional architecture, and not for the 
support of any cupolas — of which there were none — 
these pillars were of moderate size, only six feet 
square. The centre of the chapel was occupied by a 
large body of the young ladies, about two hundred, in 
a compact mass ; and then in what may be called the 
two aisles, but which were, in fact, two square rooms, 
were the rest of the seven hundred. All were dressed 
in a neat uniform of grey and white body and skirts, 
and small white caps. Here and there at intervals 
among them were women with the air each of a 
directress of her party of pupils. The girls in the 
centre were the most advanced in age — about fifteen 
or sixteen years old. Nothing could look more neat 
and orderly. There was one main difference between 
this chapel and the churches of the city which was 
novel and particularly pleasing. This was clean and 
bright, with shining polished floor and scagliola pil- 
lars, and the Ikonostas, or screen, on the raised 
dais was a specimen of picturesque detail with its 



THE PRIEST. Ill 

golden doors and carpet-covered platform, all looking 
fresh as if of yesterday's completion ; whereas the 
churches of the town, and especially the two principal 
ones in the Kremlin, in which reposes the dust of so 
many Czars, are the very reverse of all this — marvels 
of gaudiness and dirt and faded grandeur. 

But the service was proceeding. The priest was a 
fine tall dark man, with long flowing hair, a mous- 
tache and a beard, and in his dress of white silk, with 
gold Greek crosses all over it, he was an imposing 
figure. He had a rich deep voice, and when he 
chanted the solo parts of the service, and the girls in 
a body made the responses, the effect was exceedingly 
musical, and even affecting. The contrast of the 
manly, deep-toned volume of voice of the one, and 
then the clear young ringing notes of the other, with 
a tender melancholy plaint underlying them, had to a 
stranger ear a soothing and touching charm. 

When the service was over the young people went 
off in detachments at the back of the chapel, and the 
officer came to me, and we walked away together. 
On my expressing my thanks to him for his courtesy, 
and my gratification in the young people's singing, he 
said, 

" Ah ! but you should come to-morrow— our sing- 



112 



THE NURSERIES. 



ing to-day was only pretty well ; but to-morrow, if 
you will come, I can promise you something worth 
your hearing.*' 

Of course I accepted this invitation. Then he said, 
"Would you like to walk through the house with 
me now ? My time is at your service." 

So we went. First he took me to the top storey of 
the building, where we went through a succession of 
enormous apartments, each about one hundred feet 
long by thirty in breadth, all vaulted, as a defence 
against the heat of summer and the cold of winter ; 
all very light, very airy, and clean in all the detail as 
the apartments of any imperial palace. All the ma- 
terial, too, of everything looked rich and expensive. 
These were the nurseries of the foundlings. In each 
of these vaulted apartments the beds, or cribs, speci- 
mens of neatness, were ranged in rows, and nurses, in 
a costume, were scattered all over them, each with her 
child, either walking about, or sitting on the crib, at- 
tending to her little charge. The costume of the 
nurses was a cotton gown of a red and white pattern, 
and on the head a coloured cap apparently of a fine 
stuff. In one apartment the cap was blue, in another 
pink, in another red, in another green, and so on. 
The dress was the same throughout, but the caps 



THE SUPERINTENDENT. 113 

marked the different rooms. All these nurses were 
stout, strong women, healthy, clean, robust, fine speci- 
mens of a peasantry. Most of them were of a fair 
complexion, and some few were moderately good- 
looking ; but beauty is a rare flower in the peasant 
gardens of Russia. In each apartment there was 
seated a woman at a little table. She always rose at 
the entrance of the officer, and remained standing. 
This was the superintendent. On her table were a 
book or two and pens and ink and paper. She kept 
an account of all that went on in her room, slept in it, 
and lived there, every day going out for a stipulated 
time for air and exercise. All these were of a 
higher class, being of those who were brought up 
in the institution as orphans, daughters of decayed 
officers and employes of the Government, and who, 
having returned to the hospital as their home, 
find a congenial occupation in these large nur- 
series. As a proof of the care and attention and 
absence of all stint in the management of these 
little children all the cribs were fitted with mos- 
quito curtains during the heat of summer. To my 
surprise, too, there was a pervading quiet and repose 
through all these rooms. You rarely heard a cry, a 
proof methought of the healthiness of the air and 

i 



114 CAREFUL INSPECTION. 

the place, and the skilful and kindly ways of the nur- 
ses with the children. The superintendents were all, 
I observed, cheerful people with pleasing counte- 
nances, and many of them wore the unmistakable 
mark of good birth in face and manner. They seemed 
most attentive in their calling, for more than once, 
when a child did set up its loud complaint and per- 
sisted, the superintendent would set off down the long 
apartment with swift and noiseless step to it and its 
nurse, and inspect the small thing herself as to the 
cause, and make suggestions, remaining till peace was 
restored. 

From here we went downstairs. As we passed 
along the broad corridors, so light, so lofty, on so 
grand a scale, we met various women. Some looked 
like ladies, some like governesses, all neat in their 
dress, of grey, or black, or violet, rather small in 
person, with a certain refinement. My companion had 
a little something kindly to say to every one of them, 
as he had had to the superintendent in the nurseries 
above — either a suggestion in some detail of manage- 
ment, or a question respecting some young person, or 
only a simple word or two of pleasant salutation. All 
these, the officer said, were women who had been 
originally foundlings, had been well brought up in the 



THE NURSES AT DINNER. 1 1 5 

villages, and had come back to the Hospital in various 
employments according to their abilities. Those we 
met were principally messengers, servants, and attend- 
ants on the departments of the young orphans on the 
first floor and the foundlings above, each room having 
its own number of them. 

Now we came to a hall in the centre of the building 
where some thirty or forty little people were at dinner. 
These belonged to neither of the large bodies of the 
Institution. They were a small separate party, an 
excrescence of charity on the grander foundation. 
They were here for their health — a limited number — 
from the city, temporarily. What a change, and what 
an aid to health for these little folks to be removed 
for a time from the confined places of their humble 
homes and bad air and the unwholesome food of 
gourds, to these lofty apartments and their reviving 
air and the nourishing sustenance of meat, and the 
able treatment of the best medical men of Moscow. 
They looked bright, and clean, and happy. 

Descending to the basement we came into a long 
hall where the nurses were at dinner. What a scene ! 
There were two immense tables, and on either side of 
these sat a hundred nurses — four hundred women. 
In their bright red and white dresses, and their blue, 

i 2 



116 THE BILL OF FAKE. 

and red, and green caps, now all intermingled, and 
their fresh, healthy faces, they were a remarkable 
sight. You only heard a general whispering. At one 
end a lady, the superintendent, overlooked the dis- 
tribution of the dinner in portions to each. The din- 
ner consisted of a native soup called schie — a compo- 
sition of meat and vegetables — buckwheat stewed, 
and kvas, a native beer. • Of course I accepted the 
invitation of the lady-superintendent to taste of these 
native products, and though I cannot say with truth 
that I should prefer to share the nurse's repast to a 
dinner at M. Dusaux's Hotel, yet it was by no means 
unpalatable, and the kvas of Russia is a pleasant and 
refreshing drink on a hot day. Immense quantities 
of buckwheat are consumed by the Russian people, 
as it is sweet to the taste and very nourishing and 
invigorating. A galetie of buckwheat, with salt and 
pepper, is by no means to be despised. 

I asked the officer to show me the room in which 
the foundlings are first received in the hospital. He 
took me to a vaulted apartment on the ground-floor, 
having a private staircase to itself which led to a 
small outer doorway opening into a large court. In 
this was a lady-superintendent sitting at her table 
with a body of nurses standing around, all in the con- 



A DAY S ENTRIES. 117 

ventional costume. Of these latter only five had 
children in their arms — the rest, twenty and more, 
were waiting for arrivals. The lady rose at our en- 
trance from her little table and her book of entries 
spread out on it, with rather a concerned counte- 
nance. 

"How many have you to-day?" said the officer, 
going up to her with a smiling face. 

"Look," she exclaimed, pointing to her book, 
"only five!" 

"That is but a few indeed," he observed. 

"Very few, very few," repeated the lady, quite 
with a tone of distress ; " and it's getting late. To- 
day, I am afraid, is going to be a bad day." 

" Oh!" said the officer, "it is not very late, there 
is time enough yet for more." 

Thus he afforded her consolation. It was rather a 
a surprise to me that the lady selected for this especial 
post of conferring with the bringers-in of the small 
unfortunates was the prettiest person I had seen in the 
whole establishment. She was not more than twenty- 
six or twenty-seven years of age apparently, she had 
good features, a fresh and blooming complexion, so 
unlike the generality of Russian women, a fine figure, 
and a laughing countenance, beaming with good 



118 THE SUPERINTENDENT'S GALA DAYS. 

humour. And now she put on an air of concern be- 
cause there were so few children come in. 

u How many nurses do you have ready in the room 
generally?" said I. 

"Thirty-five is our number," replied the officer; 
" we rarely find that we exceed that amount." 

" Thirty-five per day !" I exclaimed with a natural 
and, I hope, a pardonable surprise at this daily crop 
of young fruit in this field of humanity. 

" Oh ! yes ; sometimes we go over that — we do in- 
deed !" the lady broke in with an eagerness and an 
air of pleasure as she seemed to remember the tri- 
umphant fact. It was evident that she took a pride 
in her office, and considered that the days of over 
thirty-five were her gala days— days of honour and 
glory — when she could meet her enemies in the gate, 
with her quiver full, and could lie down in her bed 
at night with a quiet conscience. In spirit she was a 
Spartan matron, deserving of high reward. 

I suggested to the officer that perhaps, now that 
serfdom was banished from the villages, people were 
becoming very good and moral and a zeal for marry- 
ing was growing up. He shook his head and laughed, 
and so did the pretty superintendent, but with a co- 
mical air as if she deprecated that view of the matter 



A TRUE OFFICIAL. 119 

altogether, as one in a manner injurious to herself and 
her office. It was clear that this engaging person 
looked at the credit of the establishment first, and 
that this consisted in numbers. Her pride was in 
hosts, as a preacher would feel a prid^ in a crowded 
congregation, or a general in added legions. Any 
check upon the maintenance of the lady's legions in the 
shape of matrimony or morality she would hold to be 
an invasion of her domain. The superintendent was 
a true official. The officer and I took our leave of 
her with a kindly wish on the part of both that things 
might mend in the afternoon; but she shook her head, 
as if she was hurt at our finding her with more than 
twenty empty-handed nurses. On her bonny face was 
the expression one sees on that of a suffering man on 
the bank of a noted trout-stream. In reply to the 
inquiry of a passer-by : Have you had any sport ? he 
points to a poor little creel of five. 

As we went down the short flight of steps to the 
side-door a woman passed us with a bundle in her 
arms. 

" There is some comfort for our friend upstairs," 
said the officer. 

I asked him how it happened that the prettiest and 
most smiling young woman in the place had been 



120 THE GALLERIES OF THE CHAPEL. 

selected for this peculiar office, and suggested that a 
more staid and older person would have been more 
appropriate. He did not appear to see any force in 
my view of the matter, but only laughed, and said 
the place had become vacant and she had applied for 
it, and was a most excellent and energetic person. 
She was one of the lady orphans brought up in the 
institution. I debated in myself as I walked home if 
this daily living in this peculiar atmosphere might not 
affect this engaging person's ideas about matrimony. 

On the following morning I found myself, as by 
appointment, at the hour named by the officer, in the 
corridor leading to the chapeL He was already 
there, and then taking me by a different way he 
said, 

" You will hear the singing much better upstairs 
in the gallery, so I will put you in a good place." 

Accordingly he led me up a flight of stairs outside 
the chapel. There were but few persons in the gal- 
leries, which were ample spaces spreading out over 
the two side aisles, and forming part of the centre of 
the building — level spaces without benches or seats of 
any kind. In fact there are no seats in a Greek 
church, with the exception of a bench here and there 
in recesses, or against the outer wall. The congrega- 



THE CONGREGATION AND SINGERS. 121 

tion kneel or stand. A thin line of people, principally 
ladies, stood leaning on the low baluster which ran 
all round the gallery, and looking down into the body 
of the chapel. The officer placed me in front of the 
centre gallery, between two ladies, immediately oppo- 
site the Ikonostas. Thus I commanded the entire in- 
terior. Immediately below me was the principal 
body of the young ladies in front of the screen, which 
on its raised dais with its gilded gates in the middle, 
and its smaller equally gilded doors on either side, 
and its platform in front covered with a small carpet, 
had a brilliant effect. To the right and left below 
were the other two bodies of orphans, while up in the 
galleries, scattered along the back by the windows, 
were a number of young women in white caps and 
neatly dressed. The officer having placed me to his 
satisfaction went down again to his official position at 
a pillar by the Ikonostas. 

To-day the priest was in a different dress. On the 
day previous this had been a white dress with gold 
Greek crosses ; to-day it was of claret colour with 
gold crosses all over it, the last by far the most effect- 
ive. There was a small desk or lectern on the plat- 
form, the only object there, in front of the golden 
gates. Presently the priest came out through one of 



122 PLAINTIVE MELODY. 

the side doors, and stood by the lectern with his back 
to the people, and chanted a long prayer in a fine 
deep rich voice, and after this the girls sang. The 
principal singers were immediately below me, and 
had the written music in their hands. Many of the 
young folks seemed to be more given up to the man- 
ner of the performance rather than to the matter, for 
there was a deal of nudging, and whispering, and cor- 
recting each other. However, the swell of the body 
of voice and the melancholy of the cadences at times 
filled the church with their peculiar charm. Here 
and there a voice would distinguish itself from the 
mass of sound, and rise clear and full and tender 
above the others, and prolong the note, and pervade 
the place with an indescribably plaintive melody. 
You felt sorry when it sank into the general chorus, 
and watched and listened for it again. After the 
priest had chanted his part, and the female voices 
rose once more into the swelling strain, you were 
disappointed if the voice did not come, till it gradual- 
ly seemed to steal out from the body of sound, and 
again surround you with its touching tenderness. No- 
thing could more feelingly express the sentiment of 
the religious heart appealing to the mercy of the pity- 
ing Creator. This plaintiveiiess is much cultivated in 



PAPAS OF THE GEEEK CHURCH. 123 

the Greek church. Here and there one of these 
young ladies would remain on her knees the entire 
time, while the others rose up and stood and were a 
little occupied with putting their dress to rights, their 
white aprons, or their banded hair, as is the way with 
young ladies in all lands even in serious moments. I 
could not help connecting the plaintive singer with 
one of these persistent devotees on her knees, her 
head bent over her folded hands, and regardless of 
her apron and her hair. 

But there is one thing which strikes a stranger in 
the papa's performance of the service in all the Greek 
churches, and this is the irreverent and careless and, 
in many, the theatrical air of the man. These men 
everywhere, whether at Jerusalem or at Moscow, and 
at all times, are got up immensely for effect, with 
their long curling and flowing hair, their full and 
glossy beards, their carefully-managed moustaches, 
and their long silken dress and spreading Spanish hat. 
In the church and clothed in gorgeous robes they 
are grand and effective specimens of men. Now this 
papa of the hospital, in his splendid costume, was per- 
petually coming out from the Holy of Holies behind the 
closed and gilded central gates, coming out by one of 
the side doors on to the platform, chanting a sentence 



124 THE PAPA OF THE HOSPITAL. 

or two, and then going away and disappearing by the 
other little gilt side-door. When he came out, he 
did so with a free and easy air, swinging his hands 
and arms, his fine head erect, his body a little thrown 
back instead of forward, a happy assurance in his 
gait and movement, and then he went off in the same 
fashion. You would then hear a low deep tone or 
two issuing from somewhere behind the screen in a 
muffled way, as a kind of echo, and then in a mo- 
ment out he came again with a hurried step in a 
jaunty sort of fashion. This is the manner rather af- 
fected by these men, one would suppose, from its fre- 
quent use. I was glad when this man's part was 
over, for I could not help thinking of J ack-in-a-box 
all the while ; and when the sweet voices of the girls 
rose and swelled, as one might imagine of the angelic 
choir, in a body of sound, melodious and tender, 
floating up through the galleries, it seemed as an in- 
cense of praise and thanksgiving to God for what he 
had induced kindly hearts to do for them in this noble 
institution, an incense from fresh and innocent hearts. 

The young persons standing about by the walls and 
the windows at the back of the galleries were either 
lady-superintendents from the vaulted apartments of 
the foundlings above — I looked for, but could not see 



CONTENTMENT OF THE INMATES. 125 

my engaging acquaintance from the reception-room 
on the ground-floor — or they were foundlings them- 
selves who had become the servants and attendants 
of the establishment. The former were dressed ra- 
ther handsomely in silk, the latter neatly. On all 
the faces that I could see near enough to observe 
them was an expression of quiet contentment. They 
were amiable and pleasing — indeed, one could scarce- 
ly suppose that persons whose dispositions were other- 
wise would find a life of any satisfaction in this estab- 
lishment for care of children under a very strict and 
attentive supervision. But even here there seemed 
to be one exception — so at least it appeared to me. 
Now and then my eye would wander from the papa 
and the young ladies to the galleries, and somehow it 
was attracted by a young fair person — once a found- 
ling — in the farthest corner by a window. She was 
in a light-coloured dress, and her toilette seemed to 
occupy her attention a good deal ; in fact, her time 
was taken up between this and looking out of win- 
dow. No one had books. Standing next to her was 
a young woman who seemed to devote much of her 
time to keeping her neighbour to some little observ- 
ance of the service. When the moment would come 
for all to kneel this one was deep in some arrange- 



126 



AN EXCEPTION. 



ment of her hair, and her companion had to pull her 
down by her dress. But then she did noj arrive at 
her kneeling till her apron was properly smoothed 
and in its precise place, and the pockets to her satis- 
faction. When the time came to stand up again, and 
her companion removed her hands from before her 
eyes, she found an elaborate toilette going on — the 
neck-tie was all wrong and had been untied. Between 
the getting up and the righting of the neck-tie there 
was a great deal of trouble, the friend showing much 
distress in her attempts to cover all this delay in get- 
ting up, and this irreverent conduct of the neck-tie. 
All this righted, something attracted the young eyes 
out of the window, and the friend found her neighbour 
turning her back nearly in the direction of the gorge- 
ous papa in her anxiety about the outer world ; — and 
so it went on to the end whenever I chanced to look 
in that direction. 

Poor young thing, methought, this is not your place. 
How come you here, when your heart and your 
thoughts are not in this Sinai, but far away in Egypt 
with the pleasant jewels of gold and jewels of silver 
and bright raiment ? That good little Ruth by your 
side may do all she can to impart to you some of her 
simple and loving nature, but in vain. She may try to 



GALLERY OF PAINTINGS. 127 

conceal from other eyes by her pretty care your heed- 
less ways, but some day you will probably burst out 
from what is to you only a splendid cage, and go off 
into the sunny but slippery world of Moscow. 

After the service the officer joined me, and invited 
me to see the gallery of paintings — portraits of the 
benefactors of the institution. These were in a fine 
broad corridor. Here was the Empress Katherine 
the Second, under whom the establishment commenc- 
ed — Katherine, with her handsome face and smiling 
eyes, scarcely virtuous, but still a generous and bene- 
volent and high-hearted woman, and a grand adminis- 
trator. Here was Betski, the philanthropist, a good 
but eccentric man, in a most eccentric costume, but 
who had much to do with the foundation of this mag- 
nificent charity ; — and here was Demidoff, then a mer- 
chant, and ennobled by Katherine for his splendid 
share by gifts of money in the maintenance of this 
hospital, besides many other Russian notables. Of 
course among them were frowning and superb Nicho- 
las and amiable Alexander. Beyond this gallery was 
a fine apartment, broad and long and lofty. This 
was the play-room of the young lady orphans. By the 
officer's account here were rare games of romps daily 
in winter and in bad weather, besides little festas. It 



128 



FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS. 



was pleasant to imagine the young orphan folks throw- 
ing off for the nonce dry history and the use of the 
globes, and with music and songs, and blind man's 
buff, and puss in the corner, catching childish folly as 
it flies. The officer and I met various knots of these 
young ladies as we strolled along the noble corridors ; 
and it struck me, if one might judge by the number of 
pairs of interlacing arms and clasping hands, and en- 
circling embracings, and immensely earnest and whis- 
pering, of course confidential, conversation in corners, 
that this institution was, in this part of it, a grand 
manufactory of eternal and undying female friend- 
ships. 



129 



CHAPTER IX. 

Count L His Proficiency in the English Language — Invited to 

visit his Estate — Journey in a Tarantass — Social Courtesy — Agri- 
culture in Russia — Russian Villages — The Cottages of the Peasantry 
— Family Party — The Law of Inheritance — Large Families — The 
Subdivision of Property — Reduced Nobles — The Abolition of Serf- 
dom — Russian Soldiers— Nobles and' Serfs — Abuse of Power — Ar- 
rangement of the House — Grooms and Horses v. Wife and Children 
— South Downs — Horses and Cattle — Rotation of Crops — Extensive 
Gardens — Reminiscences of the Count— The Family Roof-tree— 
Impromptu Dinner in the Wood. 

/^\NE morning I was sitting in the shaded breakfast- 
room when the landlord entered. 
"M Dusaux," said I "is there any farm near the 
town that you could help me to see and walk 

"There is one belonging to one of my friends," he 
replied, " a few wersts away, which he would be hap- 
py to show you over, I am sure ; I have my butter 
and cream from him. But," he went on, "there is 
a gentleman very often in this house who is very fond 

K 



130 COUNT L . 

of farming, Count L , who lives a few wersts 

from Moscow, and he sends me his farm produce too ; 
he will show you everything. When he comes into 
Moscow he always lives in my house, and I am ex- 
pecting him to-morrow. I will tell him you are here, 
if you like." 

This appeared to be a happy chance, so I at once 
accepted this proposal. 

Accordingly, on the following morning, I was, as 
usual, in my shaded corner, when a Russian gentle- 
man, in a military undress uniform, entered the room. 
He was of middle age, a tall, fine-looking man, with 
a dark complexion and sparkling eyes, and a bright, 
intelligent countenance. Coming up to my table with 
a frank and cordial manner, he held out his hand, 
made me an easy bow, and announced himself in 
capital English. This was very engaging, and so, in 
the course of a few minutes, we were in a flow of 
talk, as if we were old acquaintances of years. On 
my asking him where he had learnt to speak my lan- 
guage so well, for his English was good, free, and 
idiomatic, he replied, 

" I learned it when I was a boy, of an English tutor 
in our family ; and then I had English horses and 
English grooms in my stable for many years : they are 



INVITED TO VISIT HIS FARM. 131 

all gone now ; but this of course kept it up a little. 
But now I have so little opportunity of speaking it 
that I have forgotten it a good deal." 

It did not appear to me to be at all forgotten. He 
then said he had heard from M. Dusaux of my wish 
to see his farm ; and our interview ended in his in- 
viting me to come down and see his cows and sneep 
and so on. 

"Not that I have much cattle," he added; " but 
what I have I shall be very pleased to show you." So 
it was arranged. 

It appeared that the estate of Count L was 

about twenty-four English miles to the north of Mos- 
cow. The famous convent of Troitsa — holy Troitsa — 
was on that side, and the railway to it stopped at a 
station called Pouskino, fourteen miles from the vil- 
lage where the L House was situated. So, a few 

mornings after my meeting the Count, I set off early 
to the Troitsa railway station. Arriving at the 
Pouskino station, I found a number of small pony- 
carriages of the country, tarantass build, drawn by 
two ponies. The tarantass has no springs. It runs 
on four wheels and carries four persons — two in front 
and two behind ; in fact, a small light waggon. The 
seats were of sacks stuffed with hay. My driver was 

k 2 



132 JOURNEY IN A TARANTASS. 

a small man, with a red beard, and the ponies were 
strong and bony, about twelve hands high, but la- 
mentably bare of flesh. We were soon trotting along 
at a good pace on a grassy track which I supposed 
would soon lead us to a road. We entered a fir 
wood, but there was only a track which we followed 
in and out between the stumps of the trees which had 
been cut off, and sometimes over them, the stems 
partly left. It was evident that the railway station 
had, in a manner, dropped down into the edge of this 
wood without any preparation for it or any immediate 
connexion with any road or village. As we went on 
mile after mile across the open country, now and then 
skirting some houses, and then launching out again 
into the wild, I began to suspect there were no roads 
at all, in the British sense of the word — at least that 

there was none from Pouskino to L House. And 

yet when I had got out at that station, and had only 
mentioned this name to the five or six tarantass ap- 
plicants for my person every driver of them seemed 
to know it well. Now as I drove along and found 
nothing but tracks, crossing each other at intervals, I 
could not but suspect that as there was no road, but 
only a rude track, for the fourteen miles from Pous- 
kino to L House, there must be few houses 



SOCIAL COURTESY. 133 

of this character in this part of the country. So it 
proved. 

However the day was a fine warm August day, the 
country waving, cultivated, and wooded, and the ponies 
jogged along at a good pace with their rough little 
carriage, picking their way cleverly among stumps 
and roots of trees, or along the edge of deep marshy 
ground, or in and out of holes and hollows between 
banks where a broken axle or an upset appeared to 
be quite as probable as not. But the intelligence of 
the ponies was superior to all this. They seemed to 
know exactly when to creep, and exactly when to 
trot along at a good pace. We met other tarantasses 
continually. Some of a better finish or superior 
material, but still all built on the same principle — a 
light waggon without springs. There was here in the 
country, as well as there was in Moscow, an immense 
deal of social courtesy, all people taking off their hats 
or caps on meeting ; the drivers to each other as well 
as the driven, whether gentry or peasants. Certainly 
this small change of social currency is less common in 
England than elsewhere. With us it is the exception ; 
with Russians, and, indeed, with most other Conti- 
nental peoples, it is the rule. Here we all saluted 
each other as we passed. 



134 THE VILLAGES. 

There were no fences to the separate fields, of 
course, neither is there in most parts of Germany; 
and yet there is in the latter country a certain dis- 
tinctness of boundary, a narrow strip of grass of a 
foots breadth, or a two -foot ditch — something to mark 
the division — -and the ground cultivated carefully up 
to the limits. But this was not so in Russia. There 
was a carelessness and rudeness in the detail of culti- 
vation. The crops were poor, the fields quite indis- 
tinctly marked, much ground apparently half tilled, 
and thus wasted, on either side of the boundary. But 
the villages were remarkable. There appeared to 
be in the Russian peasant mind an absence of the 
idea of a garden or enclosure as connected with a 
cottage. For instance, as we drove up to a village of 
considerable pretensions there was »a broad green 
grass track right through it from end to end. The 
cottages, all of wood and unpainted, each of only one 
storey with a raised and covered verandah along the 
front, all stood out on the grass, sometimes singly, 
sometimes two or more in a line, but not one had a 
bit of garden or enclosure of any kind adjoining it. 
They all had the look of wooden sheds erected on an 
open grass field for a temporary purpose, to be re- 
moved any day — card-houses-dropped there by chance. 



COMFORTLESS APPEARANCE OF THE HOUSES. 135 

There was a bare and utterly comfortless air about 
the whole village, and this is the usual appearance of 
the Russian villages. The roofs, too, are of straw 
thatch, and this instead of being worked into a firm 
compact mass, capable of resisting wind and weather, 
as is our English thatch, is altogether loose and is 
only held in its place by long poles crossing it all over 
at right angles and fastened imperfectly, the ends of 
the poles sticking out above and below the roof in 
ragged disorder. The wind and snow derange these 
loose roofs, and so it is the usual thing in a village to 
see large rents in the roofs of six-tenths of the cot- 
tages. These remain uncared for during the summer 
and are only mended under necessity at the last mo- 
ment, when the winter cold begins again. There is 
another cause of the disorderly air of these villages. 
No house scarcely is in a horizontal position as to its 
roof ; and few cottages are perpendicular as to their 
sides, for the uprights at one end or the other have 
sunk, and so the house heels over. In one village you 
may see but a few tipsy buildings, in the next the 
whole collection is thoroughly drunk. 

It being early I came upon some villagers en des- 
habille. The child population were out on the grass 
track in their night-dresses ; at least they had on each 



136 FAMILY PARTY. 

but one solitary and short garment, while the smaller 
boys were even without this. It was glorious summer, 
and the urchins seemed to enjoy their liberty to the 
full. Throughout the whole drive of fourteen miles I 
saw only four country houses of the upper classes, two 
of these on a wooded hill, though here and there the 
well-known lofty, many-windowed buildings with a 
tall chimney near at hand, so familiar to the eye in 
the British isles, were conspicuous. 

At the end of two hours the driver pointed to a 
large house in our front by some trees, and exclaim- 
ed, " We are arrived ;" and as we drove up the 
Count L was in the verandah of the ground- 
floor, and gave me a cheery welcome. In a few 
minutes we went upstairs to the first floor, and out 
upon a broad and long balcony, some forty feet long 
by fifteen broad, roofed over. Here were sofas and 
chairs, and the breakfast-table with an enormous 
family silver samovar steaming and bubbling in its 
centre, coffee, too, and various dishes. 

Here the little family party was assembled, the 

Count L , his wife, two young boys, their sons, 

and a Russian gentleman of middle age, an old friend 
of the family, Monsieur B — — . The Countess was much 
younger than her husband, rather small, pretty, and 



COURTEOUS RECEPTION. 137 

evidently descended from a Sclavonian family by the 
peculiar colour of the eyes and skin and the forma- 
tion of the face. Nothing could be more thoroughly 
courteous and friendly than the manner of my recep- 
tion. Our conversation met on the common ground 
of the French language, and at once we were in the 
midst of talk alternately about our two countries, now 
about England and now about Russia. The Count, 
though he spoke my language admirably, yet had 
never been in England, in fact, to my surprise, never 
out of Russia. He had more than once been on the 
point of starting for England, but something had al- 
ways prevented him. 

From the balcony you looked out all over the 
country, a wide landscape of rather level ground, but 
with one wooded ridge of hills bounding it at one 
side. A river of about twenty yards in breadth 
ran through the ground near the house, dividing some 
fine meadows from it. 

Could there be any more charming combination of 
circumstances to a traveller than this — a fine August 
morning, a sunny landscape of waving plain and 
wooded hills, a shaded balcony furnished as a large 
room, and a family party full of conversation and of 
easy and unaffected manners. On the coffee-cups, 



138 the countess's neighbours. 

which were of a Parisian form and richly painted, 
making one think of Sevres artists, I observed a 

crown ; and on subsequent inquiry of Monsieur B , 

the friend of the family, as to the meaning of this 
crown, he said that the cups had come to the Count 
from his mother, who was of the old Rurik race, the 
old royal blood of Russia before the Romanoif family. 
On my observing to the Countess that they appeared 
to have some good neighbours, alluding to the two 
large and handsome white houses on the wooded 
ridge in sight, she answered, with an expression of 
sadness, 

"No, indeed, I have not any neighbours now. 
Things are very much altered within these few years 
in all parts of Russia, and particularly round here. 
Those two houses belong now to persons we do not 
know, lately come there ; but," she added, " I do not 
now much feel the want. If I wish for them I go to 
Moscow and stay a few days there and see my friends, 
and here I am very happy at home with my husband 
and my children." 

It appeared that these were men of the mercantile 
class, who had made fortunes in mills and trade 
speculations, and had bought these estates. 

" But," said I, " how came these estates for sale at 



LAW OF INHEEITANCE, 139 

all ? Was there no son to inherit in either case — no 
elder son ?" 

" Oh !" said the Count, " we have no inheritance 
now of that kind in Russia, no advantage of primo- 
geniture. When a proprietor dies his estate is divided 
among his children, sons and daughters." 

I was not aware that this was the law in its full 
extent, and said so. 

" It is unfortunately true," said the Count. " Peter 
the Great foresaw the downfall of the great families 
one day under this law of division, and he introduced 
a law of inheritance for the eldest son ; but this was 
opposed to all the old customs and traditions of the 
country, and it created so much discontent that it was 
abolished in a few years, somewhere about the middle 
of the last century. The consequence is that the large 
fortunes of the Russian nobles are diminishing rapidly." 

" This is the case with us," observed Monsieur B , 

" My father had a good estate ; we were a very large 
family, sixteen children ; every daughter takes, by law ? 
a fourteenth share, and I had a number of sisters ; so 
there was not much left for the sons. Of course the 
estate was sold. My eldest brother had his share, 
and now he has eight daughters, and so far as one 
can judge he is likely to have eight more," 



140 LAEGE FAMILIES. 

He said all this with a comic gravity, and finished 
it with a groan which made us all laugh. 

" In which case it is to be hoped he will have no 
sons," said the Countess. " Or what would they do?" 

" What indeed !" he replied. " They must do the 
new thing — go into trade." 

"Your families are as large as our British ones, by 
your account," said L " I have always observed in dif- 
ferent parts of the Continent, at German Baths, and 
at Paris and elsewhere, that whenever I met with a 
large family of children, if they were not English they 
were sure to be Russians." 

" It is quite true," said the Count ; " twelve and 
fourteen children are a common number with us, and 
you may imagine how this cuts up and destroys a pro- 
perty by subdivision. Our landed nobility are go- 
ing out very fast." 

"This, in fact," said Mons. B , "is one of the 

causes of the abolition of serfdom. It had become a 
common thing in the subdivision of land for the son of 
a noble to be the owner of a cottage in the village 
and an acre or two of land and a couple of serfs. 
Could anything be more absurd for a noble ? Then 
he was so poor that he was obliged to work for his 
living ; he could not afford to be idle, so he worked 



NOBLES AND SERFS. 141 

with his serfs on the bit of land ; and there you might 
see the noble and his two serfs at work together, all 
dressed alike. The whole thing was ridiculous." 

" Or the ruined noble went into the army and let 
out his two or three serfs to somebody else/' said the 
Count ; " the state of things was utterly rotten, and 
all sympathy with the noble on the part of the people 
had ceased." 

" Quite time it was all changed," said Mons. B . 

" The old law declared a noble could not sell his 
serfs apart from the land, but nobody cared about 
observing this. The nobles were the persons to enforce 
the law, if broken, for they were the persons with 
power in their hands ; and, of course, they did not en- 
force any law against themselves. They did as they 
liked, bought and sold and gambled their serfs, just 
as suited them. Who could punish them when they 
had all the power, by one means and another, and 
played into each other's hands ; the old law was nil." 

As my two companions talked it seemed as if they 
were speaking of matters in the South American 
states and their slavery system, with nominal laws 
for the protection of the slaves, and practical inde- 
pendence of all law on the part of the owners. 

"There were terrible abuses," said the Count, " and 



142 OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS. 

I, for one, am glad of the end of it, though it does tie 
one's hands a little." 

I said I had heard, when at St. Petersburg, of 
complaints made by the officers of the army of the 
great difficulty now with the soldiers in maintaining 
discipline, and that they said, " The officers are no- 
thing now, and the men everything." 

" True," the Count replied, "it is the case ; we can- 
not use the stick now as we did, but I am not sorry 
for this — it was a coarse and brutal system. Our 
common men are of a good disposition generally, and 
if we treat them well they will behave well, as in your 
country." 

I said I had heard that already the men were dif- 
ferent, better than they had been in some respects, 
showing a gayer spirit and more pride in doing their 
duty, more cheerfulness in their work, and less dog- 
gedness and stupidity. 

"There are no better men or better soldiers than 
are ours in the world," said the Count, with all the 
warmth of the "moustache" in his profession. 

" There were some curious things came out," ob- 
served Mons. B , " when the serfs were freed. It 

turned out that many of the men employed by the 
nobles over their estates, men among their own serfs, 



FALSE SITUATION OF THE NOBLES. 143 

were very clever fellows, and that these men had be- 
come rich by saving and trading under the rose, 
and had lent large sums of money to their own mas- 
ters — had, in fact, heavy mortgages on their land; 
while others had actually bought the lands in other 
people's names. Now they are the possessors. What 
an impossible state of things to continue ! The one 
was the master in law, the other the master in fact. 
There is one case I know of where the noble was 
supposed to be the owner of three mills, manufactur- 
ing establishments, on his estate ; when the serfs be- 
came free it appeared that all the three mills were 
the properties of three of his own serfs on that very 
estate f 

I said I had heard a curious story of a noble, who 
had complained to the manager of his estate that his 
serfs did not increase as they ought, and as other no- 
bles serfs did, and he inquired if there were many 
marriages among his own people. The manager, ac- 
knowledging that there were fewer than he could 
wish, the noble appointed a day when he would be 
at his principal village, and expected all his serfs, old 
and young, to be there to meet him. He came, and 
then ordered all the young unmarried men to be ar- 
ranged in a line on one side, and all the girls on the 



1 44 ABUSE OF POWER. 

other, outside the village ; and then, having walked 
down the line and satisfied himself which were old 
enough for matrimony, he ordered them all to be 
married at once, two and two ; that some of the girls 
refusing, he had these all marked down in a book, 
with an order against them that they were never to 
be allowed to be married at all. The Countess ex- 
claimed loudly at such a terrible abuse of power, but 

Mons. B allowed that such things were only very 

extreme cases, adding — " It is these shocking abuses 
by men practically irresponsible, and the false situa- 
tion in which people were placed with their serfs, 
that obliged a change. The serfs were, in fact, slaves, 
however people might wish to explain it away by 
saying there were laws to protect the serf. Practi- 
cally, these were of no force whatever. Among 
some of the nobles there was a kind of understanding 
that if a serf amassed property this should not be 
touched by the noble, although he legally had full 
power over it — what was his serf's was his ; but 
there was, in fact, much abuse even in this. The 
nobles were gamblers, and when they lost large sums 
at play at Moscow in the long winters they got mo- 
ney how they could, by fair means or foul. When 
their estates became embarrassed, which, of course, 



ARRANGEMENT OF THE HOUSE. 145 

they did immensely, the rich serfs paid large sums, 
for fear of worse." 

After breakfast, which, by the way, lasted for about 
two hours in varied conversation, " de omnibus rebus 
et quibusdam aliis," about everything and something 
besides, of which the above is but a short summary, 
the Count proposed to show me over his farm ; so we 
went out. The arrangement of the house was tho- 
roughly Russian. The verandah below ran all along 
the front, as usual, and from this you entered a hall 
in the centre. Rooms opened into this on either 
hand, and a handsome flight of stairs led up from the 
centre of the hall to the upper floor. Here agahi 
were rooms to the right and left opening on the 
landing. These communicated with each other, and 
opened at the extremities on the large balcony above 
the verandah. This latter seemed to be the principal 
living-place of the family, as the rooms above were 
built rather back from those below, so as to allow of 
the balcony being much deeper than the verandah 
under it. The house, of course, was only of one 
storey. In going through one of the upper rooms to 
the balcony I observed that the walls all round were 
covered almost from floor to ceiling with portraits of 
race-horses — English horses. Here they were, from 

L 



146 NURSERY V. STABLE. 

the celebrities of long-past years up to the horses of 
to-day. Here were "Marsk," and "Flying Childers," 
and " Moses," and " Old Port," and " Chateau Mar- 
geaux," and so on through the many years down to 
" Plenipotentiary " and " Mameluke," to " Crucifix " 
and " West Australian." I observed this to my host, 
that he was a lover of horses. 

" Ah ! yes," he said, " I was so once, and so I am 
now, but I have done with that kind of horse now. 
I used to keep a few for racing, and had an English 
trainer here and English grooms ; but now I have a 
wife and children, and so the horses are gone, and I 
look after my sheep and cows instead." 

How exactly this resembled the course of things in 
many houses in England ! — wife and children versus 
horses — nursery versus stable. As we walked out to 
the stable-yard, my host said — 

" It was all the fault of those English grooms that 
I never was in England. I went up from here to St. 
Petersburg one summer with the intention of going 
there to pay a visit to an English gentleman, and just 
as I was ready to start came a letter from my trainer 
here to say that he had a quarrel with two of the 
grooms, and requested me to come down to set things 
to rights or they would leave. So I was obliged to 



SERFDOM AND FREEDOM. 147 

come here, and thus the opportunity of a journey was 
gone for that year ; and then something always pre- 
vented it afterwards. Your men are, I think, more 
quarrelsome than ours." 

" Very likely," said I ; " training is everything in 
horses and in men. Wait a bit. When your ^people 
have been trained a little to liberty they will show 
more individuality of character, and then will come 
more difficulty of managing them." 

"That is very possible," said he; "for instance, 
there is my coachman ; I brought him up as a serf, a 
boy in my stable ; if he did not drive as I liked I just 
took up my stick and gave him a sharp cut over his 
shoulder, and he bore it and said nothing ; but now 
I can't do that ; I must be civil, and tell him to mind 
what he's at, or he would quarrel with me." 

So we reached the open pasture ground. Here 
was a flock of sheep. They were of two very distinct 
breeds; some of them of a thin-legged and weedy 
shape, and others of a fine stout build. On my ob- 
serving the latter, the Count said, 

"Ah! those are from your country — those are 
South Downs !" 

" South Downs !" 

It was quite true. Here were the thick full bodies, 

l 2 



148 CATTLE, SHEEP, AND HOESES. 

the short black legs, the black faces — all the distinct- 
ive marks of my old friends of the Hampshire and 
Dorset Downs. The Count, true to his British likings, 
had always a small flock of these. On my inquiring 
if they did well in Russia, he said they were very 
hardy and bore the climate well. It may be added 
here that my host was in the habit of now and then 
sending a whole carcase up to M. Dusaux at the hotel 
at Moscow, and in a day or two after this visit one 
arrived at the hotel ; and as long as it lasted I in- 
dulged in some portion of the " South Down " every 
day, a most satisfactory daily memento of the old 
country. 

Russia is much more a country for beef than for 
mutton. Few sheep are grown there, and the Rus- 
sians are not a mutton-eating race. They have large 
herds of cattle, but I only rarely saw a flock of sheep 
anywhere. The Count had a small herd, natives, 
and all of them without horns, and talked of having 
over some short horns from England, the only thing 
which stopped him then being the cattle-plague. 
There were some young horses too, colts and fillies. 
Most of them had English blood in them crossed with 
Russian — a cross which, he said, made a good, hardy, 
active, working animal. There was no park, in the 



STABLES AND OUTHOUSES. 149 

English sense of the word, but fine meadows stretched 
away on both sides of the river, on which the hay 
was made and in cock and being carried. Some of 
this was already gathered into extensive barns which 
surrounded the courtyards, fodder for the sheep and 
cattle during the long Russian winter. It was remark- 
ably sweet and good hay. In Russian farming there 
are no green crops, no clover, no grasses, no turnips ; 
and their usual rotation is — wheat, oats, buckwheat, 
and then they lay up the land for a year. They do 
not grow barley, and the peasants grow rye ; this and 
buckwheat are the main dependence of the pea- 
santry. 

In the stables were the carriage horses, shewing 
the cross of good English blood in their heads and 
legs, and also some farm horses — small -stout natives. 
From the stables a door led into extensive airy out- 
houses, warm and substantial, with thick walls and 

Ik 

strong roofs. These were the winter houses of the 
sheep and cattle when the ground was covered with 
snow and ice. At one end of these was a door com- 
municating with a further spacious outbuilding, roofed 
over, but on one side of which was left a large long 
vacuum between the wall and roof : this was to admit 
air. The animals were driven from the inner barn 



150 THE GARDENS. 

into this outer and half covered place for a time every 
day for air. Beyond these were immense barns for 
the store of hay, of which some of them were already 
half full. 

The Count seemed to be very fond of all his ani- 
mals, and to interest himself in all matters that con- 
cerned their care and comfort. In the various yards, 
too, there was plenty of other life — turkeys, poultry, 
Muscovy ducks ; while in the farm buildings there was 
steam machinery at work, and the golden grain pour- 
ing out in heaps upon the floor. The gardens were re- 
markable. It appeared that the father of the Count 
had had a passion for gardens, and had spent much 
money on them. One long lofty substantial wall ran 
through the centre of what we should call the kitchen- 
garden, a walled enclosure; and this wall was closed on 
both sides. Against one side were built all the vari- 
ous offices and rough sheds of the garden, such as the 
gardener's dwelling house, stoves, tool-house, &c. ; 
while on the other side of it was the winter garden, 
a glass roof for the whole extent projecting to a low 
wall at ten or twelve feet from the other wall. In this 
were all kinds of fruits grown — strawberries, currants, 
apricots, peaches, and others. Beyond this was the 
cherry-garden, a space of ground entirely roofed in for 



THE OLD FAMILY HOUSE. 151 

the winter temporarily with fir poles and straw, and 
warmed with air from a stove. Adjoining these gar- 
dens were the shrubberies and pleasaunces. Here 
were shaded walks and fine trees by the banks of 
three ponds or small lakes, all in a natural valley, the 
lakes formed by artificial dams across from side to 
side, a small stream at the head of the valley forming 
the lakes, and falling from one into the other. The 
lowest and largest of these was of some acres in ex- 
tent, and on it was a pleasure-boat. A few single 
pine-trees stood on the banks, and some extra- 
ordinarily large birch, full ten feet in girth, of rugged 
stems and high branching heads. Not far from this 
latter piece of water we came on wide heaps of broken 
bricks, considerable rums of some large buildings. 

" Ah," said my companion, " subdivision of pro- 
perty does not make the son as rich as his father. 
This was the old family house in which my father and 
mother lived, It was a wooden house, as ours gene- 
rally are, built on a stone foundation — not that it was 
of real stone, as we have none, but in this country we 
call bricks stones — and a capital house it was, a large 
roomy comfortable place ; but when my father died 
and the property was divided, it was a question with 
me if I should live in this big house or in a smaller 



152 the count's keminiscences. 

one, the stone house we are in now. Very often in 
this country we have a second house near, for con- 
venience of offices and stables, and so on ; and so I 
chose the second house, and pulled down the big one, 
and this is the ruin of it." 

" You must have regretted the old house where you 
grew up," said L 

" That I did," said he, as he pointed to the ruins ; 
a rare jolly days we have had there. Many a time 
have I been in that lake when I was a boy. My 
father kept all this up in capital style ; and those 
gardens — the winter garden and all — were his doing ; 
but I can't keep it all up as he did — I must look 
after the farm, the corn and the cattle, and what will 
pay. When we were boys," he went on presently, 
" my father and mother, who were very fond of hav- 
ing foreigners here, used to have English and Ameri- 
cans here for months together. I picked up a good 
deal of my English in this way. My father was very 
fond of books and history, and the conversation of 
foreigners. I am afraid I rather took to horses, and 
went into the army." 

What a charming frankness and simplicity there was 
about all this. How could one help feeling a warm 
sympathy with the man talking in this resigned but 



PREPARATIONS FOR EARLY DINNER. 153 

cheerful spirit over the ruins of the family roof-tree, 
recalling in this hearty manner the happy days of his 
youth, and yet with a tone of sorrow in his voice as 
he told how here his fathers had lived a life which 
the laws of his country prevented him from doing. 
Methought, as we walked along the path which led 
us towards his present house, through a pretty shrub- 
bery and wood, it is better, however, that the law of 
one's country should do this — better that a kind of 
hard necessity should have obliged a change than 
that one's own father should have squandered the for- 
tune, and so have thrown a worse pang into the loss. 

As we reached the house which stood at the edge 
of the shrubbery and wood; only a roadway separat- 
ing them, we found the Countess superintending a 
preparation for an early dinner for us all out in the 
wood under the nickering shades of the trees. My 
host entered heartily into the proposal. The boys 
were in ecstasies at being employed to carry things 
across from the house into the wood. The table was 
being laid, and men were going backwards and for- 
wards with baskets of knives, forks, plates, bottles, and 
all material for the feast. The Countess was on the 
balcony above, superintending, as she commanded 
from thence the whole position; while Monsieur B- - 



154 DINNER IN THE WOOD. 

the friend, was seated below in the shaded verandah, 
with his cigar, thoroughly enjoying himself in that 
acme of all contentment to a rather corpulent middle- 
aged man — looking on at busy people engaged in pro- 
viding for him what will conduce to his pleasure and 
gratification. In due time we had a capital dinner, 
principally of Russian dishes, of course, but not omit- 
ting some cutlets from one of the South-downs — for the 
Englishman. Nothing could be more cheerful than 
this impromptu dinner in the wood — the boys of 
course dining with us. The Countess was full of easy 
unaffected conversation, though often in the rather 
serious tone of her remarks she seemed to feel the 
want of social neighbours in the country, although she 
had in the morning denied the fact. The Count was 
gay and convivial, with all a soldier's frankness of 
manner, and all the polish of a man of the higher 

society of the world. Monsieur B was at all 

times ready either to add to the passing jest with some 
quaint remark, or to throw in a few words of useful 
information in reply to some question of inquiry from 
the stranger. The two boys were not the least happy 
of the party. The Count evidently rather spoiled 
them, particularly the second of six years old, who 
was evidently a pickle. He was always saying or 



the count's YOUNGEST SON. 155 

doing something comical, or wicked, as his mother 
declared with a frown for the young marauder on 
forbidden territory, not always effective. As I looked 
at the dark sparkling eyes of the little man sitting 
opposite to me at dinner and perpetually at war with 
custom and order, methought here was some of the 
old Rurik blood, hot and reckless, perhaps fermenting 
in his young veins, and not likely to fertilize the old 
property to its advantage when he would come into 
his share of the fields and the meadows and woods 
around us. 



156 



CHAPTER X. 

Return to Moscow — The Count's Tarantass and Three Mares — The 
Coachman — Effect of Freedom on the Russian Peasantry — Unsettled 
State of the Country — A Nobleman's Mansion — Appearance of the 
Country — High-roads — Free and Easy Bathing — A Russian Inn — 
Passion for Tea — Domestic Arrangements — The Great House Stove 
— " Gone to Bed" — Vodka — Curious Illustration of Russian Police 
Law — Law of Trover — Piety and Pilfering — The Difficulties of 
Driving — Safe on the Pave. 

nnHE dinner being over, the Count's tarantass came 

to the door, and Monsieur B and I mounting 

into the body of the carriage, and the Count getting 
on the box by his coachman, we took leave of the 
Countess and started for Moscow — twenty-four miles. 
It was five o'clock, and the Count declared his horses 
always did the distance in two hours and a half. 
This tarantass was a kind of high phaeton without 
springs, and the three horses were harnessed abreast. 
The centre one was in a pair of shafts, and the two 
outsiders were hooked on to the two ends of the 
splinter-bar. The centre horse was a roan, and the 



RETURN TO MOSCOW. 157 

two others were a black and a dun — all three of 
them mares, the middle one a trotter. 

We started at a rattling pace, and soon our road 
merged into a mere track across fields. A large bell 
was suspended above the middle horse in the usual 
circular hoop, and this one always trotted whatever 
pace we went, while the other two cantered. A collar 
of small bells was fastened under the necks of the dun 
and the black. This is considered by a Russian as 
the right thing. 

As we went along the Count turned round and 
said, 

"All these are half English, and all mares. The 
Russian people have a prejudice against mares, and a 
gentleman never drives one ; they think they cannot 
do work, but I know better. Besides this, they are 
cheaper, and this suits me too. I don't care about 
fashion, but these three mares will beat most horses 
anywhere." 

We went along at a tremendous pace, the roan mare 
never once breaking from her trot, though the others 
were put out to a fair hand-gallop. The driver 
was the former groom whom his master could not 
now improve on occasion with a stick. He talked to 
his horses perpetually. 



158 THE COACHMAN. 

" They all know him," said the Count, "you see by 
their ears that they each know which he is talking 
to." 

He had no whip, according to the custom with Rus- 
sian coachmen — i.e., no visible whip, his two hands 
being held out in front of him with the reins twisted 
round them, and these held tight, their bits being 
plain large bridoons. Whenever he was dissatisfied 
with either horse, so that it required a correction be- 
yond talking, he raised a hand sharply and brought 
the rein down on the offending horse's quarter with a 
stinging blow, a small, heavy, smooth piece of metal 
being worked round the rein exactly at the appropri- 
ate place for the blow. The horses wore no blinkers, 
and so they could see every movement of the driver, 
and thus sometimes the raising of the hand, without 
the threatened blow, was enough to make the offender 
start forward as if he had felt the metal. However, 
though there was no visible whip, I found that each 
coachman carried a small short knotted stick under 
his legs, and now and then, on great occasions, he 
would gather all his reins into the left hand, and 
stooping for the stick he would hit the offender a tre- 
mendous cut on the hinder part of the leg above the 
hock. It is a small but a savage instrument of tor- 



A FREE PEASANTRY. 159 

ture, and, as used, much more severe than any 
whip. 

Seeing some men cutting corn, I asked how their 
peasants now behaved in these parts. 

"Very badly," said the Count. "It is difficult to 
get them to work." 

I said I had heard of nobles paying so heavily for 
getting it cut and carried that there was no profit, 
and that some were living on the produce of their 
forests, cutting them down and selling them. 

" Very probable," said Mons. B . " Now that the 

peasants are free they labour as little as they can ; but 
some parts of the country are worse than others, and 
some villages worse than others." 

I said I had heard of a noble making a bargain with 
his village to cut his corn at so much a head, men and 
women, to begin on the morrow, and that on coming 
two days after to see how the job was going on he 
found not a hand at work ; on remonstrating, he was 
told they had found they could not do the job at the 
price, and demanded more, — that he consented to this 
farther demand, and that the new bargain was made 
and broken just as the former one, and that in the end 
he only had his corn cut for more than double the 
wages at first agreed on. 



160 UNSETTLED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 

" That is likely enough to be true, for there are 
complaints of the kind everywhere," said the Count : 
" the truth is that at present things are all without any 
regularity; no one knows just what wages ought to 
be, how much or how little, and so these people get 
all they can ; and if you agree to give their own sum 
they think they have asked too little and can get 
more, and so they ask more,. and refuse to work un- 
less they get it. All this will settle itself one day." 

I asked how things were on the Crown lands with 
the Crown peasants. 

" From what I hear," said the Count, " things are 
rather worse there than with us." 

We passed through a village rather more neat than 
usual. 

" This is one of my villages," said the Count ; " but 
a precious set of rascals they are. Here was a capital 
wood I had, you can see only a part of it now. These 
fellows used to steal such quantities of it, cut it down, 
and carry it off at night, that I was losing it all piece- 
meal, so I sold it all as it stood, to save it." 

" Could you not catch one of your thieves," said I, 
" and punish him severely, as an example and a warn- 
ing?" 

" All that would have been more trouble than it 



a nobleman's mansion. 161 

was worth," he replied ; " the nearest magistrate lives 
twenty wersts off; and then there are such delays 
in our new laws, and long processes, and perhaps not 
much punishment after all that these men would care 
about, and in the meanwhile my wood would have 
been stolen all the same. All our law matters are 
new, and not much understood yet. In a few years 
we shall do better ; but at present all our affairs are 
in a bad way — law and money." 

Near another village was a large house, now shut 
up. It was an extensive building, with a long hand- 
some front, and standing back from the roadway in 
some pretty grounds with shrubberies and tall trees, 
It was as usual a one storey house of wood, on a low 
brick foundation. There were three or four other 
smaller buildings in the grounds by the shrubberies, 
and a couple of large imposing pillars, a gateway, 
marked the entrance from the village into the place, 
This was a nobleman's mansion with the outbuildings 
for his various people, steward and secretary and so 
on. Now the whole place was falling to ruin. It 
appeared that the owner had died, and then came 
trouble about division of property and mortgages ; 
and then followed the liberation of the serfs, and so 
the family mansion was abandoned. Large gaps were 

M 



162 HIGH-ROADS. 

appearing in the roofs and sides of the various build- 
ings, all paint faded and windows gaping, and the 
two pillars of the gateway, of Italian form, unconnected 
with anything and falling to pieces, were as ghosts of 
departed grandeur — a type of many of the ruined no- 
bility of Russia. 

The country we passed through was a wavy ground, 
not quite flat, not to be called hilly. There was but 
little wood, and the land was generally under tillage 
intermixed with pasture ; but it all wore the look of 
carelessly cultivated land, poor crops, ill -defined divi- 
sions of fields, and rugged, marshy ground at inter- 
vals. Here and there was a more careful manage- 
ment evidently, better buildings, of course of wood, 
and herds of cattle. 

After about ten or twelve miles of rapid going 
along these country tracks we came to a high-road — 
a broad handsome highway. I was congratulating 
myself on our reaching this, but on our swinging out 
on to it from the field I found our pace was soon 
checked by large dips and holes. . On my remarking 
this to the friend, he said, " This is one of our high- 
roads, but it is in a bad state." 

" The Government does not take much care of it, 
apparently," said I. 



DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING. 163 

" Government !" he exclaimed, " the Government 
does not take care of the roads, it only takes care of 
a few of the great high-roads, and all the others are 
left to take care of themselves ; and as it is nobody's 
particular business, nobody does it. We have no 
roads in Russia." 

True enough, here were only tracks, and* even this 
large highway to Jaroslav and Kostroma, one of the 
great trade thoroughfares of the Empire, was a mere 
rough track. Sometimes we went along at the rate of 
twelve or fourteen miles an hour, the roan mare in 
the centre never breaking her trot, and the big bell 
over her head giving out its fine musical note with 
her regular stroke, while the dun and the black on 
either side rushed along at a gallop ; and then after 
half a mile of this pace the driver, by a word or two, 
would check them all, that he might change his ground 
and avoid some impossible dip, green with morass of 
mud and weeds, or steer carefully along a ledge be- 
tween the outer field and a pool of water ; and then 
having passed this, he would spring his horses again 
at a word up to the next difficulty. Now and then 
he could see no hard ground all across the sixty feet 
from side to side, and then he charged the morass 

m 2 



164 FREE-AND-EASY BATHING. 

gallantly. Down we went into it, and all three 
horses plunging gamely through it we were up the 
other slope and away along the track with a little 
additional rush in the pace after the adventure, the 
Count looking round with a pleased smile and the 
little driver chuckling to his horses in approval. But 
at times even this became impossible, the road was so 
full of holes and deep ruts like ditches, and so, at 
times, we went at a foot's pace. 

We passed many villages, and long lines of telegas 
on their way from the country to the capital, laden 
with timber for building, or with bricks, or apples, or 
barrels of tallow, or the products of the cloth and 
other mills. 

Near one village a man walked out of the back of 
a solitary house in a state of nature across a strip of 
grass towards a narrow river. 

"That man," said the Count, "is taking his bath. 
In that house is the hot bath, and now he is on his 
way to a plunge into the cold water, and then he will 
come back and have another hot bath. Our peasants 
are very fond of this." 

What a free-and-easy little bathing establishment 
by the high-road. 

At the end of an hour and a half, having done six- 



TEA-DRINKING. 165 

teen miles in spite of all impediments, we drove up to 
a wayside inn. Here the Count said lie often stopped 
on his way to Moscow to have a glass of vodka and 
a talk with the landlord. In the outer room, the bar, 
a large apartment, was a long dresser, and on shelves 
on the wall behind it were glasses, bottles, and tea- 
cups ad infinitum. Here were the landlord and land- 
lady, a comely pair, past the middle age. In a room 
beyond, visible through a wide doorway, were a num- 
ber of small round tables, and sitting round these were 
peasants, men and women, in little sociable parties, 
and on all the tables were teapots, tea-cups and 
saucers, small, and of pretty and various patterns. All 
these people were drinking their tea, and on no one 
table were there bottles or glasses. None of the 
young men were drinking vodka or kvas, nothing but 
tea. It is a passion among these people. At all 
hours of the day, in the cabarets of Moscow as in those 
of the country, if you look in on passing, you will see 
these people, big working men, drivers of droschkies, 
women and children — there they are drinking tea, tea 
veniente die, tea decedente — " from morn till dewy eve !" 
In a French cabaret they would all be tippling red 
wine ; in a German Gasthaus all soaking beer. If you 
ask the Russians they will tell you that the only 



166 THE GREAT HOUSE-STOVE. 

drinks they care for are vodka (brandy) and tea. 
Wine and beer are too cold. 

The Count saying that I ought to see the interior of 
the house, the landlady first led me and Monsieur 

B into the back premises. We went across the 

yard into the great barn. This was the summer bed- 
room of the landlord and his wife, in one corner of it 
being a large old-fashioned four-poster. This was an 
airy apartment certainly. The interior of the house 
seemed to be principally arranged with reference to 
the great house-stove. This was a huge affair, large 
and broad and high, occupying the central position in 
the wall of four rooms and so projecting a great angle 
into each. Thus it warmed four rooms at once, the 
mouth of it being in the kitchen. An iron door 
closes it. This is about three feet from the ground, 
and a brick platform built up to that height in front 
of it resembles a French hot-plate ; on this the cook- 
ing is done. If it is wished to use the fire without the 
big stove being heated, then the iron door is closed. 
The chimney rises from above the fireplace. The 
stove is also the oven and is easily heated from the 
fireplace. This big stove is a luxurious piece of furni- 
ture in the bed-rooms. The broad deep angle offers 
a tempting sleeping-place, and in the cold weather, if 



" GONE TO BED." 167 

anyone finds his bed chilly, he places a mattress upon 
the stove-angle, climbs up, and has a warm sleeping- 
place. 

As Monsieur B and I came out of one room I 

observed a white figure upon the angle of the big 
stove, and I raised the candle to examine, for it was 
getting dusk. 

u That is my daughter," said the landlady — " she 
had a headache, and is gone to bed." 

The said young person had in her simple night- 
dress — for that was her only covering — laid herself 
upon a mattress on the stove, and was " gone to bed." 
What a thoroughly inartificial arrangement for a young 
person ! 

Going back to the bar we. found the Count and 
the landlord deep in discussion of local matters,, as 
also vodka, and we took our share of the latter. 
Vodka is by no means bad to the taste, and rather 
reminded me of Schnapps in the country inns round 
Dresden on partridge-shoo ting mornings. We mount- 
ed into the tarantass again for Moscow. 

We had stayed so long at the wayside public that 
it was getting dark as we started, and the road be- 
coming, if anything, <worse than before from its being 
more used by traffic nearer to the capital, and more 



168 RUSSIAN POLICE LAW. 

cut up, we were forced to travel more slowly. The 
large bell suspended to the hoop over the roan mare's 
withers told us by the quicker or slower stroke ex- 
actly what we were doing in the way of pace ; for 
now it would ring out a clear sharp peal for a time 
as the mare laid herself out for a couple of hundred 
yards, and then it stopped suddenly with a jerk as 
she found herself at the brink of a dark, deep hole, 
round which she skirted, letting the dun and the 
black make their w T ay as they could through the mo- 
rass and the tarantass to take a sidelong plunge into 
it. The Count held on convulsively to his box-seat 
on these occasions, and the little driver stuck to his 
place with the balance of custom, ready for any event, 
like a sailor with his sea legs on board ship in a cross 
sea. While passing a large piece of water a curious 
story was told by the friend in exemplification of the 
ways and customs of Russia and police law in the 
country. I had mentioned a circumstance related to 
me by the British Consul in Moscow. A lady had 
fallen down in the street as he was passing in his 
carriage, and she lay on the pavement unassisted by 
any of the passers-by, as it was against the law for 
anyone to help her up or aid 4ier, as he might be 
charged by the police with attempting to rob her. 



CURIOUS STORY. 169 

The Consul stopped his carriage, got out, Kfted her 
up, had her put into his carriage by his servant, and 
took her to her home. The Count's remark was — 

" The British Consul might do that with impunity, 
but no Russian would have ventured to do it for fear 
of the penalty. If a person is drowned no one can 
venture to aid in restoring life, or touch the body, 
until the police are present." 

Monsieur B then related the following: — 

" A gentleman was with a party of friends at his 
estate in the country, and one day, while they were 
at dinner, a servant came in to say that one of his 
serfs had fallen into the lake in front of the windows, 
and was drowning. There was a rush of the master 
and his friends to save the man, and they succeeded 
after much trouble in getting him out on the bank ; 
but once he was there they could do no more — they 
could not have him removed to the house till the po- 
lice should arrive. The family of the man came hur- 
rying from the village, but neither were they able to 
take him away home for the same reason — the police 
were not present. Of course the man died. The 
police were sent for, but the nearest station was 
twelve wersts off, and, for some reason or other, no 
one came though repeatedly sent for during four 



170 DISHONESTY OF THE POLICE. 

days. During all this time the body lay on the bank 
of the lake within sight of the house, and no one dared 
to touch it." 

The ground-work of all this curious law was that 
the man might have come unfairly by his death, and 
some one, in pretending to aid in removing the body, 
might steal something from it. What a suspicious 
people ! 

On my relating this to an English acquaintance at 
Moscow his observation was — 

" The police ! why, the police themselves would be 
exactly the people to take anything they could find on 
the body, if they were unobserved." And he went on 
to say in proof of this : " One day I sent my servant 
with ten roubles to the market to buy some things for 
me. He returned presently in great alarm to say that 
he had dropped his purse with the roubles in it in the 
street. I sent him at once to the nearest police station. 
On his way there, and near the station, a droschky 
driver saw him searching about, and hearing he had 
lost his purse the driver said, ' I saw a policeman of 
that station,' pointing to it, 6 pick it up.' The servant 
taxed the policeman with having the purse ; but he de- 
nied it ; but the driver coming up repeated his asser- 
tion — £ I saw him pick it up.' The policeman being 



QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES ? 171 

threatened with exposure, at last produced the purse, 
and then claimed the reward of trover, — one-third of 
the property found. The driver and the policeman 
quarreled over the matter, and then it appeared that 
both of them had seen the servant drop the purse, and 
the policeman had refused to go shares with the driver 
in the contents, and hence his denouncing the former. 
'This is not a case of trover at all,' said my servant, 'but 
a robbery, for you saw me drop the purse.' However, 
the policeman took his three roubles as trover, and 
returned the rest. If the policeman had but consent- 
ed to share the contents with the driver, it is proba- 
ble," added my acquaintance, " that the latter would 
have gone off to a church, and on his knees have thank- 
ed the Virgin for her goodness in letting my servant 
drop his purse and for thus sending him five rou- 
bles." 

" Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ?" Who shall guard 
the guardians? 

We did not reach the barrier of Moscow till long 
after dark, the road was so bad. On arriving at this 
the coachman got down and unhooked the big bell 
from the hoop over the roan mare. 

" We are not allowed to enter Moscow with that 
big bell, only with the little ones round the horses' 



172 DANGEROUS ROADWAY. 

necks," said the Count — "another police law." 

But it was a remarkable thing that for full a mile 
after we were inside the barrier the roadway was 
actually more dangerous than it had been outside. It 
became pitch dark, there were no lights except here 
and there from candles in an occasional cottage win- 
dow, which only made the darkness more puzzling; 
and every now and then we met men and telegas, who 
warned us against great holes in the roadway. At one 
spot we had to wait for some minutes while a string of 
some twenty telegas passed by in a meandering fashion 
across the roadway in front of us, because there was 
a deep gulf of a place extending half across the way. 
I suggested that these careful police might put up a 
light, or a board, or a warning of some sort at this 
spot, to prevent horses and carriages from going down 
into this gulf in the dark. 

" We are not on the pave yet," said Mons. B , 

"they take care of nothing beyond the pave, and no 
one takes care of the roads beyond it." 

In this matter of roads the Russians may still be 
considered to be a young people. It was rather a relief 
to feel the rattle of the wheels on the pave, bad as 
that is, and with the high road with its gulfs and mo- 
rasses behind us. 



173 



CHAPTER XL 

The Twerskaia — The Palace of Count Kostopchin — The Great Radiating 
Streets of Moscow — The St. Petersburg Gateway — The Promenade 
— The Carriage Drivers — The "West End" of Moscow — ACompanion 
at my al fresco Luncheon — Russian Children of the Upper Classes 
— Life of Young Gentlemen — The Petrofski Palace — The Main 
Edifice and Detached Buildings — The Baffled Conqueror — An 
Officer and his Wife — Military Exercises — Russian Soldiers and 
Officers — The Moscow World in the Petrofski Park — Tea under the 
Elms. 

rpHE Twerskaia may be considered the principal 
street in Moscow. At one termination of it is 
the fine arched gateway called the St. Petersburg 
Gate— the principal entrance to the city from the Twer 
and St. Petersburg high-road ; and at the other end is 
the broad Boulevard in front of the famous little cha- 
pel of the Iberian Mother of God by the Kremlin 
Wall and the Alexander Gardens. This street con- 
tains many of the largest shops, some of the finest 
buildings, palaces of the nobles, as well as the princi- 
pal club-houses. It passes through one of the chief 
squares, in which is the residence of the Governor of 



174 THE TWERSKAIA. 

Moscow. The palace which Count Rostopchin, the 
patriotic governor at the time of the French invasion, 
occupied is a much smaller mansion near the Palanka 
market-place, and is now in the possession of a well- 
to-do manufacturer. One almost feels as if there were 
a desecration in the exposure of articles of metal ware 
in the outbuildings of such a house — that walls which 
had listened to the highest resolves of the patriot for 
the salvation of his country should now only hear cal- 
culations of profits and the prices of raw material. As 
I looked at it the thought arose — This house belongs 
to the history of Russia, and should be sacred. 

From the Kremlin Wall to the St. Petersburg Gate 
the length of the Twerskaia is about three miles. At 
two-thirds of this distance one of the great Boulevards 
crosses it, and from this point its whole character 
changes, as is much the case in other parts of the city. 
The street becomes wider, the buildings are of a lower 
elevation, the houses and churches partly cease, and 
the Russian cottages appear. But what is remarkable 
is, that although this may be called the principal 
street, leading as it does to the St. Petersburg road, 
to the race-course, to the review-ground for the troops, 
as well as to the Hyde Park of Moscow, and to the 
Petrofski Palace of the Emperor at the edge of the 



THE ST. PETERSBURG GATE. 175 

Park, yet in spite of all this the Twerskaia from the 
boulevard to the gate is the most common and least 
picturesque exit from the city. In other of the great 
radiating streets there are good houses at intervals, 
fanciful buildings, pretty villas, or neat superior cot- 
tages, up to the very barrier, fresh with paint and 
pleasing to the eye, with Eastern detail of ornament. 
But here is only an immensely wide roadway of in- 
famously rough pave, bordered on either hand by small 
insignificant shops for the sale of common country 
articles, low plain houses without ornament or cha- 
racter. 

The St. Petersburg gateway is a handsome and 
lofty arched gate in Italian style, and is in a degree 
* imposing ; but it is only of brick coated with plaster, 
and coloured dark to look like bronze; and its position, 
supported only by lines of low small mean houses, 
seems incongruous. It gives one the idea of an in- 
tention begun, but never carried out. 

Immediately outside the gate^ however, the scene 
changes. Here the intention is realized in a degree. 
There is a large open space with roadways branching 
from it. From the centre commences a noble car- 
riage-drive — a double drive — and a promenade with 
avenues of trees between them, all of it showing care 



176 THE "WEST END " OF MOSCOW. 

and taste and attention, and bespeaking the approach 
to the Imperial Palace and the Hyde Park. This ex- 
tends for a mile or two. 

One day walking in this direction I passed the 
gate and came out on the Promenade. It was a hot 
day in August, and the broad level walk, shaded with 
dwarf limes, and having seats at intervals, was most 
inviting. It was all kept with as much care as if at 
a German Bath, or at the world-famous " Corner " of 
Rotten Row. All along on either side ran the car- 
riage drives, one of these leading, after a mile or so, 
out on to the review ground, a wide, grassy plain, the 
other to the palace and the park. Beyond these on 
either hand were numerous villas in gardens. This 
was clearly intended to be the West End of Moscow. 
What spoiled it was the common and ill-built and ill- 
tenanted mile of street between the Boulevard and 
the St. Petersburg Gate. If the nobles of Moscow 
had but selected this as their quarter, it would have 
made all the arrangement of the town complete; 
but they did not do this. The Moscow nobles had 
their sunny south quarter and their Sokolniki drive 
and park before the days of Peter and his city in the 
north, and the Muscovites had no leaning at any time 
in the direction of St. Petersburg. 



UNDER THE LIMES. 177 

Finding a shaded bench, I sat down under the 
limes. There was nothing particular going on to 
bring people in that direction more than usual, but 
there was plenty of life and movement. A few peo- 
ple were on the Promenade, scattered along it, from 
the villas, and passengers from the town and country- 
were frequent. Carriages were continually coming 
put from the great gate, some taking the drive to- 
wards the review ground, and some on the other side 
the Promenade to the Park. There was a military 
camp formed on the far side of the plain, a large 
force under canvas, and now and then an officer, in 
his shining helmet and grey overcoat, sitting erect in 
his smart droschky, dashed out of the gate, and went 
in the direction of the camp at the best pace of his 
black trotting Arab-looking horse, his fat body coach- 
man in the conventional blue dressing-gown holding 
his arms straight out before him and steering the 
black trotter to a hair's breadth with the tightened 
rein and the large bridoon. Then a more ambitious 
officer, seated in a tarantass drawn by a pair of slash- 
ing greys, trotters too, would emerge from the gate 
and hurry along in the same direction, and, of course, 
the coachman of the two greys did his best to out- 
trot the single black over the plain. The peculiar 

N 



178 RUSSIAN DRIVERS. 

attitude of these Russian drivers always gives me the 
idea of their being engaged in a race, spurning behind 
them the puherem Olympicum. The charioteers of 
Diomed and Ulysses at Troy must have worked their 
horses over the yellow sands by the Simois and Sca- 
mander by the same methods and with similar bits as 
these Russian drivers, the only difference being that 
the former stood instead of sitting. More than once 
a young gentleman would drive himself — unusual 
sight — from the direction of the plain in a spider car- 
riage with one horse, a smart stepper, with silver - 
mounted trappings, the youthful whip seated on his 
bare plank with his feet in stirrup-irons. On his 
fragile vehicle he did not try his skill against the 
rushing Greeks over the plain, but confined himself 
to ornamental ambling. 

As I sat there a man came by with fruit, gooseber- 
ries and raspberries, ripe and seducing on this hot 
morning ; they were just fresh from the country, so I 
bought some. Presently a poor woman came up, 
very tired and heated from her evidently long walk 
in that burning sun, dusty, too, from the dried-up 
roads. She sat down on the bench too, and the 
gooseberries lying on it between us I invited her to 
share them with me. How pretty and engaging are 



RIPE FRUIT ON A SULTRY DAY. 179 

the natural manners of women — of simple countrywo- 
men ! This woman was taken by surprise by my 
offer, for she had sat down at the far end of the 
bench with a rather deprecating air. Now she thought 
my offer was scarcely a real one, and declined it with 
a modest, timid mien, rather frightened. She was 
full forty years of age, and scarcely good-looking, for 
Russian peasant women are rarely so, as I had a 
good opportunity of judging at the Foundling Hospi- 
tal with its more than four hundred nurses. But 
ripe fruit on a sultry day, after a dusty walk and in a 
shady place, is a thing not to be declined twice when 
offered with the manner that means — " Come now ; 
they will refresh you — there are enough in that bag 
for you and me — I cannot eat them all." So the wo- 
man, after making many pretty half-objections, con- 
sented, and we shared the gooseberries. But she re- 
quired to be continually invited to continue her share 
of the luncheon, and each time consented with the 
same deprecating manner, and she mumbled always 
something beyond my comprehension, but which, any- 
how, had the sound and air of meaning — " What, an- 
other ! — how kind you are ! — well, they are good 
after my walk." All this time there came snatches of 
song over a hedge beyond the road leading to the 

n 2 



180 NURSE AND CHILDREN. 

park behind me. Adjoining one of the villas was a 
large market-garden, and these scraps of song came 
from garden- women at work, a line of them as I had 
seen in the cucumber grounds by the Devitchi convent 
near the Moskwa. In this garden, however, there 
was something besides gourds ; there was variety — 
carrots, cabbages, onions, beetroot, celery, and other 
plants, as I ascertained by a visit after my luncheon ; 
and as I sat there the pleasant perfume of the vegeta- 
bles came on the air across the road. 

Presently, my luncheon companion having de- 
parted with her simple courtesies into the city, a 
little party came out of one of the villas across the 
road, consisting of a nurse and three children and a 
man-servant in livery. The man carried one of the 
children, the younger boy, in his arms, and when they 
reached the Promenade the servants seated themselves 
in the shade on a bench not far from mine, and the 
three children amused themselves. The boys were 
both in white linen knickerbockers, black velvet 
jackets, and high black boots, with a rim of red 
leather round the top. They were small, slight, pale 
things. It is rather remarkable that almost all the 
children of the Russian upper class are de-licate and 
fragile. On inquiry I was told that they are, as a rule, 



EUSSIAN YOUTH OF THE HIGHER CLASSES. 181 

brought up in close and heated apartments during the 
long winters, and in the summers they have no games 
or out-of-door amusements to attract them into the 
air and keep them there in healthful exercise ; they 
are not taught to ride ponies, and sporting is not a 
habit among Russians, and thus the boys grow up as 
house plants, weakly. As young men they lead an 
indoor, indolent life, gambling and eating forming 
much of their occupation ; while reading French and 
English books, and dressing, form the principal part 
of that of the younger women. It is not therefore 
difficult to understand what was declared to me one 
day by a party of Russian gentlemen as a thing to be 
deplored, that anything more vicious and more 
thoroughly profligate than the young Russians, sons 
of the rich and noble families, it would be impossible 
to find in any country calling itself civilized. 

As I went on down the Promenade, I met various 
other little parties of well-dressed children, with their 
attendants, from the villas, but they all had the same 
characteristics — they were invariably pale and slight 
things. How different are these, methought, from 
the big-limbed and ruddy-cheeked boys, and the rosy, 
active, and tomboy girls — ready for cricket and rid- 
ing to hounds — of merry England of this class. As 



182 THE PETROFSKI PALACE. 

I went on the great plain opened out on my left, and 
stretched away for miles, the Promenade continuing 
as its boundary, and so I arrived at the front of the 
Petrofski Palace on my right. It was a building un- 
like any I had ever seen. It was of red brick and 
stone, but it was a fanciful edifice, made up of all 
kinds of architectural conceits, as indeed are many of 
the public buildings of Russia. But though this was 
almost entirely of red brick, and was but a fancy, it 
was a proof of how very ornamental a building can be 
made out of this common material, and in spite of a 
violation of all rules of Art. The principal edifice 
stood away back from the road and the Promenade, 
at the further side of a considerable court of a circular 
form, perhaps sixty yards from the avenue of dwarf 
limes. This court was inclosed by two encircling 
lofty walls, thirty feet high, and on them were built 
many towers of all kinds of quaint shapes and sizes. 
Here was a Saxon tower of circular form, its bulk 
projecting into the court ; then came a square one ; 
next to this one with an Italian Church front, such as 
Bramante might have modelled. All the detail was 
of delicate Italian work, but in red brick. The win- 
dows of these, as well as of the Palace beyond, were 
set in fine stone work. Two of these, of rather more 



ROOMS OF HISTORICAL INTEREST. 183 

pretension, stood on either side of a broad entrance to 
the court, and formed a handsome finish to the sweep 
of the encircling wall. All these detached buildings 
appeared to be inhabited, as though they were occu- 
pied by officials of the Palace. The main edifice was 
as singular as any of the adjuncts. There was a 
double flight of steps up to a broad landing, with a 
portico above supported by Egyptian pillars. From 
this you entered a fine central hall, circular and very 
lofty ; and this in fact formed the principal interior. 
From it opened various apartments. There was no- 
thing above this but a garret, the windows being in 
shape like our common garret or dormer window in 
the roof, on a large scale. However it carried out in 
one respect the cottage design proper to Russia — it 
was a big cottage, with a raised ground floor, and a 
garret above. 

There was one interest attached to these rooms. 
It was in them that Napoleon had, on his first arrival 
at Moscow, awaited the coming of the notables of the 
capital to tender submission to the Conqueror and 
the city keys, and had awaited them in vain. No 
notables came bending to him, no keys arrived — no- 
thing but the news that no person of importance was 
in the town — it was deserted. How disappointing, 



184 THE BAFFLED CONQUEROR. 

and how irritating, and how defiant ! And it was to 
these rooms that he had retreated when further stay 
in the city was dangerous, and it had become a neces- 
sity to vacate it. What must he have felt when he 
entered them the second time, his grand prize too 
evidently wrested from his grasp ? Perhaps in these 
rooms that evil genius of war for the first time in his 
life became sensible of a doubt of his own power in 
dealing with nations and sovereigns as pieces on a 
chess-board. I could not help thinking how terrible 
a blow these walls must have witnessed — what a blow 
to a man hitherto living in a proud conviction that 
what he' willed that he could do. It was on that 
wide plain to the West, in the front of these rooms, 
that Napoleon, when he decided at last, every scheme 
to remain frustrated, to start for France once more, 
must have begun that awful retreat. Sacked and 
ruined Moscow was on his left, only the open plain 
between him and his smouldering victim, and in his 
front, due west, was the only road of safety from utter 
destruction, and this by the devastated fields of 
Wiazma and Smolensk. I could not help imagining 
the Conqueror, the proud and gratified man, as he 
rode into that gateway on his arrival, — and the same 
man as he rode out of it for the last time, angry and 



AN OFFICER AND LADY. 185 

baffled, every triumph tarnished, every effort defeated, 
every boast turned into emptiness, his genius at fault. 

While sitting on the low rail of the Promenade I 
saw an officer and a lady come out from one of the 
quaint towers into the court, and so through the en- 
trance gate-way out towards the plain. The officer was 
in uniform, the lady in a pretty morning dress, her 
head without any hat or bonnet. As they passed me 
they were talking French, and were arranging for 
their dinner in the evening. There was to be an 
inspection or review of troops on the plain, and he 
was going out to this. The important domestic matter 
settled, the lady tripped back again into the court, 
and into her pretty tower. By their manner to each 
other, and their happy familiarity of conversation, 
they were man and wife, both tall and young, and the 
officer, it must be said, the better-looking of the two. 
She was very fair, with a German cast of face, and 
the officer was a Russ, with the dark blood of the 
East in his veins. 

And now I observed that officers were walking or 
riding up from various directions over the plain to a 
common centre, nearly in front of the Petrofski 
Palace. Far away to the west the plain stretched for 
miles, an unbroken level, till it dipped, and the ground 



186 MAECH OF TROOPS TO THE PARADE GROUND. 

rose beyond in low hills. In the distance I could just 
make out the tops of the tents of the troops, a long 
array. Watching these, as I sat, I at last discovered a 
dark low extending line on the ground between me 
and the tents, and that this was slowly approaching, 
moving across from the right to the left. When it 
came within about a mile or so I saw an occasional 
flash of light from its front. Bayonets, methought, — 
here come the troops. And now, as this dark low 
line crept gradually more into sight, another similar 
dark body appeared beyond it, and then another, and 
then another— more and more continually. It ap- 
peared as if each regiment as it formed by the tents 
moved off, each advancing and taking the same direc- 
tion, from the right to the left. So they came on, 
each with that peculiar swing and flow of motion of a 
large body of men on the march. From some of the 
regiments there flashed out the occasional sparkle of 
steel in the rays of the afternoon sun, and some swung 
along a dull heavy mass without any flash at all. 
Some carried their bayonets and firelocks, and some 
were without arms. The body of officers remained 
stationary about half a mile off out on the plain, and 
the regiments marched in turn past them, and took up 
their ground all along the line of the road and the 



MILITAKY EXERCISES. 187 

Promenade, a long line extending from nearly oppo- 
site the Palace in the direction of Moscow. I heard 
afterwards that there were twenty thousand men on 
the ground. All those regiments that had marched 
up with their muskets were massed in' squares on the 
end of the line towards the town, and those without 
arms were similarly drawn up at my end, towards the 
Palace. After the body of officers, all on foot, had 
walked down the line from end to end, they took up 
a position in front of one of the unarmed regiments, 
and then commenced the exercise. Each regiment 
was made to advance from the line about a hundred 
yards to the front, towards the officers. At the 
word of command, the three or four front ranks 
advanced at a quick step, breaking at another word 
into a run, and going on close up to the officers, 
when they divided to the right and left, and dashed 
along the front. Then, turning at the angle, they held 
on at the same pace till they gained the rear of their 
regiment, when they turned behind it, and formed 
up again in their places ; the next ranks doing the 
same, till the whole regiment was exercised. When 
this was done, the body of officers moved on to the 
front of the next regiment, and the same performance 
was repeated. Of course there were some checks — • 



188 RUSSIAN SOLDIEES. 

some of the files going through this exercise badly, 
and having to do it over again. This appeared to be 
the object of the inspection — that a superior officer, 
who was very busy all the while talking and making 
remarks with a great deal of animation, in the front 
of the body of officers, should witness a new move- 
ment. Altogether he appeared to be very much 
pleased, and to approve of what he saw; and one regi- 
ment being apparently better exercised in it than the 
others, he had the movement repeated, and then gave 
it unqualified praise. 

I could not help thinking that this new exercise 
was a leaf out of the Zouave and the Chasseur 
de Vincennes book at Paris, to be put into the 
Russian book for future use. After it was over I 
walked out on the plain and among the men to look 
at them closely. They were all dressed in short dark 
green tunics, white linen or canvas trousers, and the 
usual strong Russian boots. Now these trousers were 
tucked into the top of the boots. They were all large 
men, and evidently a picked body, very even in point 
of height, broad-shouldered, large-limbed, and power- 
ful. I never saw a finer body. Their stride and 
freedom of action, too, when running, struck me — 
once, in my own opinion, and in younger days, a pro- 



THE PARK. 189 

fessor in the art — as light, free, muscular, and in ex- 
cellent mechanical form. The Russians are declared, 
by those who know them well, to possess a very imita- 
tive genius, and this new exercise seemed to be a 
proof of it. The officers I did not think at all equal 
in personal appearance, either in frame or muscle, to 
the men. How should the small delicate pale boys I 
saw on the Promenade, and in carriages everywhere — 
hot-house plants — grow up into athletes? How 
should the do-nothings be as the hardy men of the 
villages, labouring in the fields from boyhood, and 
defying all weather? I could not help in .my mind 
comparing them with our own officers — men from the 
training of football and cricket — of the oar and the 
gun — of the road and the hunting-field — of the rod by 
the meadow stream, and the glacier on the mountain 
top — athletes, and sons of athletes. 

The officer went back to his fair-haired wife in the 
Palace to dinner ; and I went round behind it into 
the Park. Here I found the Moscow world, driving, 
and walking, and drinking tea. As the principal 
world was out of town, it being summer time, there 
were few carriages of any mark now to be seen. 
Here and there a very gorgeous turn-out passed by, a 
lady and her children in it, pale little people, the boys 



190 THE SMALLER GENTRY OF MOSCOW. 

in red velvet tunics, the girls in white, of course. 
There were a few spider carriages, each with its well- 
bred Arab-looking animal ; but the greater num- 
ber were in droschkies. 

However, the Petrofski Park has its merits. It 
consists principally of a number of villas, gardens, and 
winding roads among these, public gardens and shaded 
ways. The latter of these I enjoyed the most. Just 
at the rear of the Palace were some fine elm-trees, by 
the side of the public drive. Among these, and in 
their shade, were some quiet bosquets and bushy 
pleasaunces ; and here it was the habit of the smaller 
gentry of Moscow, with their wives and children, the 
well-to-do easy classes, to come and sit in the shadow 
of the big trees, and drink the unfailing tea, and see 
the world go by. So here I *found a number of 
tables spread with clean white linen cloths, and on 
them the burnished samovar, the Russian urn, and 
pretty tea-service of Moscow porcelain, some in blue, 
others in yellow, in green, in pink, in harlequin pat- 
tern, and in every kind of fancy shape. How tempt- 
ing it all looked! Parties of people were sitting round 
some of these, while children ran races among the 
bosquets, and enjoyed themselves generally. Other 
parties were lounging idly in the shade, and looking 



TEA FROM NIJNI. 191 

on at the passing carriages. Of course I soon found 
myself at an unoccupied table, a diminutive table, 
laid with diminutive tea-cups in purple and gold. In a 
moment a woman appeared from somewhere bearing 
a steaming samovar, the charcoal all alight in its in- 
terior. She knew instinctively that I was a foreigner, 
and asked if I would have cream. " Yes, I would 
have cream." She disappeared round a bush, and in 
a minute or two she returned laden with a huge jar 
of cream — two or three pints, at least — of the richest 
and purest cream. Considerate creature ! I could 
have embraced her, as she did the jar, but for the 
publicity of the situation. . How I revelled in the tea 
from Nijni and the cream from the Hebe of the 
bosquet ! After a hot day, and some hours of walk- 
ing, what could be more grateful than to sit thus in 
the shade of those noble elms, as the sun was sinking 
over that great military plain, and thus enjoy " Hyde 
Park " in a novel way ? The only thing wanting to 
me was a companion ; and I do believe if the woman 
of the morning on the Promenade — she who had 
shared my repast of gooseberries — had but come by 
at that*moment on her return from the city into the 
country, I should have invited her to tea. How 
strong is the demand in our nature for companionship ! 



192 ANIMATED SCENE. 

In our extremity it is now a mouse, and now a flower, 
and now a peasant woman of Muscovy. However, 
she did not come ; and so I contented myself with 
the moving scene of carriages and horses, the voices 
of children at play among the trees, and perfumed 
tea from Nijni and abounding cream, till dusk — when 
I strolled back to Moscow. 



193 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Paving of Moscow — Trial of Wood and of Stone Flags— Ornamental 
Villas — Houses erected by Government — Road-making in Russia — 
The Agricultural College — 'The Officer appointed to conduct me 
over the Establishment— The Cow Stables — Dutch and Swiss Cattle 
— Steam Engines and Machinery— Farm Horses — The Farm — 
Museum, Library, and Lecture Rooms — How the Property was 
acquired by Government — An Apothecary who made a good job 
of it — Russian Employes — Church of the College — A Russian Re- 
freshment — Restaurant on the Kitai Boulevard — Change in the 
Education of Young Nobles. 

FT! HE RE is something more to be said about the 
Tverskaia. I had heard mention of a model 
farm of the Emperor somewhere in the neighbour- 
hood of. Moscow ; and one day I named this to the 

British Consul, Mr. R . He at once said, " If 

you would like to see the model farm I can take you 
there — the governor of it is one of my friends." Of 
course I closed with this proposal. 

As we drove along the Tverskaia, I observed to my 
companion what a singularly ill-paved city it was 

o 



194 THE PAVING OF MOSCOW. 

generally, and this, its principal street, in particular, 
adding, 

" Is it the case with the inside of the town as with 
the outside, that it is nobody's business to keep the 
pavement in good condition ?" 

" On the contrary," said Mr. R ; " as you ob- 
serve, the pavement of Moscow is infamous — enough 
to ruin all horses and carriages ; but you have no idea 
what trouble we have about it. For instance, some 
few years since our authorities were advised to try 
wood. You in London were trying wood pavement, 
so we tried it in a few streets to test it. But in the 
first thaw after the winter so many horses fell down 
on the slippery wood up and down our hills, and so 
many broke their legs, that we were obliged to take 
it all up again. Then there came a German, and he 
proposed to pave the town with big flags as at Flo- 
rence, and we were to have our streets like a bowl- 
ing-green. Accordingly this was done in a street or 
two, as with the wood ; but wood is cheap and stone 
is expensive, as we do not get stone easily here, and 
the big flags were costly. At first it was admirable, 
and everybody was pleased. At last we were to have 
a delightful pave for our trotters, and the German was 
pronounced to be a blessed man- -during the summer. 



ORNAMENTAL VILLAS. ' 195 

But the winter* came. It is the frost and snow that 
ruin our streets. After the winter of course the thaw 
arrived, and then the streets all burst up as usual, and 
the big flags were so terrible, their points standing up 
like jagged rocks, and such holes between them, that 
the road was impassable both for horses and wheels ; 
and so there was the end of the bowling-green, and 
we returned to our own wretched pavement. You 
see the street always breaks up after the winter ; but 
we knock these smaller stones down again as well as 
we can and make the road passable, and that is all 
that can be done." 

So we trotted on over the jagged Tverskaia, and 
through the St. Petersburg gate to the park at the 
back of the Petrofski Palace. The model farm lay 
two or three miles beyond this, and the whole road 
was through pretty woodland scenery on level 
ground. As we went on we passed from time to time 
ornamental villas standing in enclosed gardens full of 
flowers and shrubs. The Consul pointed them out as 
we passed. 

" There lives Mr. A , a wealthy merchant of 

Moscow ; and that is the villa of Mr. B , a great 

manufacturer ; this is the house of the Prussian Con- 
sul ; and that is the villa of Prince G ." 

o 2 



196 A GOVERNMENT PROJECT. 

All these were 'pretty houses built on the Russian 
plan — a raised ground-floor with verandah and a gar- 
ret above — a style of building thoroughly suitable to 
a summer residence. It is a house and cottage com- 
bined, and the verandah being often a broad projec- 
tion from, the building, the family live principally on 
it, commanding as it often does a view over the in- 
closing fence to the country beyond, as well as an 
easy descent into the garden by the flight of steps. 
The house of the Prussian Consul was the prettiest of 
them all, its front covered with creepers and roses. 
Many of these villas were rented only for the summer 
months by Moscow residents. 

Leaving these we passed some pine woods, and 
here at intervals, in the edge of the woodland, were 
many small separate houses in various stages of erec- 
tion. My companion said that all this was ground 
belonging to the Government, and that these houses 
in course of erection, and others completed, were a 
project of the Government. In some cases the au- 
thorities had built the house and let it at a low rent ; 
while in other cases they let the plot of ground at a 
small ground-rent on a long lease, thirty or forty 
roubles a year, the lessee building his own house. 
Various of these Government houses were occupied, 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 197 

their gardens of considerable size and gay with flow- 
ers, and the voices of children resounded with laugh- 
ter and merriment from the enclosures. There was 
one thing observable and eminently Russian. Except 
the road on which we were driving, there was no pre- 
tence of any other — nothing beyond a grass track in 
the direction of any of these villas. The cross ways 
leading to their entrance gates were left as chance 
left them — tracks in the soil, only marked with the 
wheels of the timber and brick carts during the build- 
ing. Road-making is certainly not a passion of the 
Russian nature, and the Muscovite Macadam has yet 
to be born who shall regenerate both the city and the 
country. But the houses were pretty and exceeding- 
ly picturesque, showing that there is much taste for 
architecture native to the Russian mind, though it is 
at present not very pure, but slightly bizarre. 

We arrived at the end of the wood at a consider- 
able collection of buildings. This was the Agricultural 
College. It consisted of a handsome central man- 
sion, in which were the museum, lecture-rooms, li- 
brary, council-chamber, and other apartments. This 
stood apart, and near it were the dormitories of the 
students, two long lines of building forming a half- 
circle with a gap in the centre, and facing to the 



198 VACATION TIME. 

museum. Beyond these was the Governor's resi- 
dence, and then again the farm-buildings, barns, sta- 
bles, yards, cart-houses, granaries. On the far side 
of the dormitories was the church, and at the back- 
front of the museum a large flower-garden with bos- 
quets and summer-houses, and fountains and basins, 
and pretty avenues of trees. It was all in the most 
perfect order, rich-looking, clean, and substantial. 

Calling on the Governor, we found to our disap- 
pointment that he was in Moscow, but an officer of 
the establishment was at once directed by the secre- 
tary to show us everything. It appeared that the col- 
lege was now empty, the students, who numbered 
two hundred, all away on vacation, it being the sum- 
mer holiday. So all the professors, seventeen in num- 
ber, were away too. I confess that in my heart I 
was thankful the seventeen professors were in the 
bosoms of their several families, or acquiring know- 
ledge far from the academic shades. The idea of 
seventeen learned men was an oppression to a simple 
traveller, and the thought that I could walk about 
the whole place at my ease and see for myself was 
an inestimable blessing. 

The Consul had quietly informed me on our way 
that agriculture was not much in his line, and the 



COW STABLES. 199 

officer who was deputed to show us over the college, 
at once, on my first question, admitted frankly that 
he was utterly ignorant of all matters connected with 
sheep, cattle, and corn. Evidently one thing was 
quite certain, that I should not leave the college that 
day oppressed with a plethora of knowledge of scien- 
tific farming. The officer led us first into the cow 
stables. ' Nothing could be cleaner or in better order ; 
but the cows — well, they were all away at some pas- 
tures at a few versts distance, thirty in number, and 
all of them were of Swiss or of Dutch breed. These 
were preferred to English breeds as better milkers. 
The bulls were in the next stables, four from Switzer- 
land and two from Holland, the latter appearing the 
finer blood, but they were all small. The Swiss had 
fine broad foreheads, but were heavy in the heads as 
well as in the shoulders, with hollow backs, while the 
Dutch had straight backs, more classical heads, and 
were finer in their limbs. They were well cared for 
and kindly treated, as the polished woodwork of the 
stalls, and the sweet-smelling hay and fresh litter, and 
glistening chains round their sleek necks, and bright 
eyes and coats, and their docile ways, all testified. 
There was a boiling-house for the food, and a tram- 
way for this all through the stables. There was ma- 



200 



THE FARM. 



chinery for threshing corn, and for cutting it and 
grass. There were various steam-engines for thresh- 
ing, but those by " Woods " they considered the best. 
In the yards were heaps of straw, and ranges of sacks 
of corn were in the barns ; while horses were every- 
where — in stables, or in the yards, some harnessed to 
old-fashioned telegas, and others to newly-fashioned 
farm vehicles considered more convenient. The 
farm horses were rather small, some from Belgium, 
others of a native race, but all showing bone. There 
was a general eye to character in the selection. In- 
quiring for the sheep, in the hope that, like Count 

L , there might be here a fancy for the black 

faces from the South-downs, I heard that the flock 
was of Russian breed, and was at some distance off. 
The farm consisted of about two hundred acres of 
wood, and about one hundred more of arable and 
pasture. It was altogether a busy and pleasant scene, 
and thoroughly enjoyable, for it seemed like being 
suddenly transported by a magic power from all 
foreign and strange objects away into the midst of 
home sights and sounds, with the charm of accustom- 
ed habits and the perfume of associations grateful to 
the senses. 

From the farmyard we went to the museum and 



THE LIBRARY. 201 

library. The whole building was fitted up in the 
usual way of similar places of study. There were va- 
rious lecture-rooms, and separate museums for the dif- 
ferent subjects attached to the several rooms for lec- 
tures. The library, a long, handsome apartment, was 
well furnished with works arranged in separate cases, 
according to subjects. Here were works on agricul- 
ture, on animals, on soils, on manures, on anatomy, 
on electricity, on chemistry, on forests, and in various 
languages — French, English, German, Russian. This 
room is open to the students daily from ten in the 
morning till one, and again from three till six in the 
afternoon, and every convenience is provided for 
them of tables and writing materials. The establish- 
ment in all its parts was in the best order, neat and 
well cared for, and yet the lecture-rooms and library 
showed marks of being constantly used. 

Going out into the garden, I observed to my com- 
panion that none of the buildings had a Russian look, 
but rather Italian, the large central mansion being, in 
fact, a very ornate Italian house on a large scale. 

" It is Italian, " he replied, " and its history is this : 
This property round here all belonged to a noble of 

this country, Prince G and he, after living in 

Italy for some time, returned here, and built this 



202 HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY. 

house, and all the others for offices — that in which 
the Governor lives, and those used as the students' 
dormitories, and the stables too, except that those 
have all been enlarged and added to lately by the 
Government for the college. But this principal house 
is the same as it was first built. The Prince died, 
and his widow lived here for some time ; but being 
extravagant, her property got into debt. She bor- 
rowed money on it, the lender being an apothecary in 
Moscow. There is a curious story about it, though 
nobody ever quite knew how the thing was managed; 
but anyhow, in the end the widow of the Prince 

G parted with the whole estate for something 

absurdly under its value. It is declared that she 
only had forty thousand silver roubles for it, about 
six thousand pounds. The apothecary at once sold it 
to the Government, which paid much more than its 
value, the sum given being two hundred and fifty 
thousand roubles, rather more than thirty-six thousand 
pounds ; so the apothecary made a good job of that." 

" People do say," said I, "that a purchase by the 
Russian Government goes through so many hands, all 
of which take a toll as it passes, that in the end the 
sum paid is long beyond the value of the article 
bought." 



A PETITION TO THE GOVERNOR. 203 

My companion laughed. 

" How are the employes with their low salaries to 
live if they do not make a little money by their 
wits ?" And then, as we stood by the fountain in the 
midst of the garden, as it threw its jets of water into 
the air, sparkling in the afternoon sun, and falling 
with its musical murmur splashing into the basin, he 
related to me the following : — 

" One of my acquaintances here at Moscow, a com- 
mercial man, wished lately for a special permit con- 
nected with his business. He applied to a Russian 
as to what he should do. Petition the governor, said 
the Russian, and take it yourself to him. So he drew 
up his petition and called at the governor's palace. He 
was shown in to the secretary, who received the paper 
and heard the case. The secretary, in the most polite 
and urbane manner, made light of the matter — it 
would be granted immediately. He waited for a 
fortnight, and then hearing nothing from the gover- 
nor he called again. Again he saw the secretary, and 
again he was promised an immediate compliance with 
his petition, — the governor, said the polite official, had 
been a good deal engaged lately with important mat- 
ters. Another fortnight passed, and no answer came 
from the governor. So then he spoke to his Russian 



204 BRIBING OFFICIALS. 

friend about the singular delay. 4 Can there be any 
real objection?' said he. The Russian gentleman 
merely asked this question, — ' How many roubles did 
you offer the secretary ?' My friend was shocked. 
' Why, the secretary is a gentleman, how could I ven- 
ture to do such a thing ?' 4 Gentlemen !' replied the 
Russian ; ' of course he is, but he is an official. How 
do you think he manages to keep house, and wife, 
and horses, and all that, on his paltry salary ? Offer 
him some roubles, or you will get no permit in twelve 
months.' So they came to an understanding as to the 
number of roubles grateful to the secretary, and my 
friend presented himself again at the governor's house. 
After the usual polite speeches on both sides, my 
friend took out his ten rouble note, and laid it with a 
certain misgiving on the table by which they were 
sitting. The secretary pulled open towards himself a 
long drawer of the table, and putting out his hand, 
with a smiling face and a most courteous gesture to 
my friend, he drew the note across the table, and 
dropped it into the drawer. In the drawer were a 
quantity of rouble notes. Then the secretary rose with 
a most cordial manner and animated gesture. " A thou- 
sand apologies, my dear sir, for this delay in replying to 
your petition. The governor has been much occupied, 



CHURCH OF THE COLLEGE. 205 

but it shall be attended to instantly — without an hours 
delay.' On the very next day the petition was grant- 
ed. How many officers and secretaries," added the 
Consul smiling, " did this purchase of this estate pass 
through between the apothecary and the Govern- 
ment?" 

" Then the apothecary did not get quite all the two 
hundred and fifty thousand roubles ?" said I. 

"Good lack !" said the Consul, "no — that would have 
been too unjust ; of course there was a fair division of 
toll between the various parties, several toll-bars to be , 
paid between the two principals, the apothecary and 
the Government." 

At the edge of the garden stood the church of the 
college. It was a specimen of compound architecture, 
and nothing could be more fanciful than its detail. A 
broad flight of steps beneath a canopy led up to a 
covered landing and the entrance, the pillars sup- 
porting the canopy being of Byzantine form, twisted. 
The body of the church was of course the Greek cross, 
the usual cupolas surmounting the roof. Then there 
was a Saxon rounded arch to the doorway, while 
more than one of the lower windows terminated in 
the pointed style. In the upper part were small 
windows with Moorish fretwork, and pretty small 



206 THE STUDENTS. 

Moorish pillars. When you add to all this that some 
of the pillars were painted red and some blue, and 
that the whole church was bright as a freshly painted 
picture, you could not help looking at it all as a pretty 
plaything, a toy rather than a church. I did not go 
inside. No doubt that was a bright reflection of the 
shell. This had been the private chapel of the Russian 
Prince G- . 

After a luncheon at a traktir in the neighbourhood, 
where my companion and I indulged in the thoroughly 
Russian refreshment of caviare and cheese and brandy, 
we drove back to Moscow to the famous restaurant 
on the Kitai Boulevard, where we had a Russian 
dinner. Here we sat on white sofas, our windows 
shaded with white blinds, our table covered with 
snowy white linen, while the men who waited on us 
were Tartars, clothed entirely in white, jacket and 
trousers, the whole air of the large apartment being 
that of a room in a sultry Oriental city. 

As we drove back from the farm through the 
park, I asked my companion what was the general 
status of the students of the college. 

" They are of various grades," he replied ; some 
of them of course are poor, sons of small nobles, or 
men who have saved a little money in trade ; but as 



EDUCATION OF YOUNG NOBLEMEN. 207 

the payment is small, and 1 they can live cheap, they 
manage to attend the college ; then there are sons of 
lawyers and doctors, and of commercial men, of whom 
there is a large body in Moscow." 

" Are any of them high nobles?" said I. 

"It is a remarkable thing," he replied, " what a 
change there is going on in that class. Formerly no 
noble of the higher class put his sons into anything 
but the Army. They did not like the Navy — in 
Russia that is thought low and not fashionable ; the 
young men went through a course of reading in the 
universities ; they learnt a little of everything, very 
superficially, of course, and not very usefully — 
science, art, history, languages, and military tactics.; 
when they came out of the universities they were 
placed in certain cadet corps, preparatory for the 
regular army. But now, since the liberation of the 
serfs, the nobles find it necessary to have their estates, 
which are much curtailed, better looked after. The 
consequence of this is that some of the principal 
nobles in the country are educating one of their sons, 
not for the Army, as before, but to be an agent over 
the family estates. Some of these young men are 
here at the college, and are receiving an education in 
agriculture for this purpose." 



208 POSITION OF THE NOBLES. 

" This freeing of the serfs," said I, " seems to be the 
beginning of a very considerable change in the 
country." 

" It is an immense change," said my companion ; 
" of course the nobles as a body do not like it, be- 
cause it has in some cases deprived them of property, 
and in others it has exposed the rottenness of the old 
system. Many who were thought to be rich pro- 
prietors, turned out to be poor and in debt to their 
own agents and serfs. So this is not a popular act of 
the Emperor, that is, not among the nobles : but there 
are even many of them think it a very useful measure 
for the country ; and the people, as a mass, are enthu- 
siastic about it, and declare that now for the first time 
there is a Russian people. There is no doubt," he 
went on, " but that the position of the nobles had be- 
come a very false one : some were rich and oppressive 
to their people, and others were poorer than their 
own serfs." 

I mentioned to him what Count L — — - had told me. 

"It is quite true," said the Consul; "and, more- 
over, they were almost universally gamblers. The 
quantity of money they played away in the winters 
here in Moscow was monstrous ; and when they had 
lost heavily, and sent down to their estates to their 



GAMBLING. 209 

agents for more, the agents were their own serfs very 
often and lent them their own money. Now the 
nobles cannot any longer play deep in this way, and 
so the commercial men in Moscow are taking their 
places. These men play even more heavily than the 
nobles did. At the Club you may see a thousand 
roubles on a card. However, these men by their 
losses do not do so much mischief as the nobles did. 
When these millionaires and others lose their money 
it goes to any other mill-owner, and the mill goes on ; 
but if a noble damaged his estates, his people suffered, 
his land, his villages, his tradesmen, his children, 
everyone. Now the nobles are becoming more sensi- 
ble, and the next generation will be different men." 



p 



210 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Convent Simonoff — Extent and Wealth of the Establishment in 
Former Times — Day of St. Sergius, and Fair at the Convent — 
Superb Bell-tower — Varieties of Costume — Young Gamblers — 
Interior of the Simonoff — The Superior — His Reception by the 
Crowd — " Devoured with Kisses" — The Church — Earnest Devotion 
of a Youth — View from the Bell-tower — Disappearance of my 
" Murray" — Distribution of Beer — The Fete proper — Tea-drinking 
Booths — Sale of Melons and Honey — Beggars — Organ- Grinders — 
Female Shop-keepers of Moscow — Chorus-singing — Well-to-do 
Peasants. 

fTlHE Moskwa, after flowing into the city from the 
Sparrow Hills, and washing the walls of the 
Kremlin, makes a sudden bend, and flows out again 
almost in the same direction by which it entered. At 
the point where the river leaves the city there are 
high precipitous banks a little withdrawn from the 
water. A meadow is between the stream and the 
high ground. On one of these heights stands the 
Convent Simonoff, an extensive collection of build- 
ings contained within a lofty, embattled, ponderous 
wall, dotted at intervals with imposing towers. This 



THE SIM0N0FE CONVENT. 211 

is of red brick, and is more than half a mile in cir- 
cuit. The convent is, in fact, a small fortress, and in 
the days of bows and arrows, and spears and clubs, 
and battering-rams and Tartar horsemen, it stood a 
good siege or two successfully, the monks beating off 
their assailants. The day came when new powers of 
warfare were in use, and then it was taken by the 
Poles and sacked. As it was once the most import- 
ant monastery in Russia, and had been enriched by 
numerous princely private gifts of great value, besides 
the treasures which it had collected as owner of large 
estates, the capture was an immense prize to the in- 
vading Pole. Imagine this convent possessing at one 
time numerous villages and twelve thousand serfs ! 
What able diplomats must have been St. Sergius and 
his successors among religious devotees to amass such 
a property as this ! Clearly the Greek papas did not 
think lightly of temporal power any more than does 
our neighbour, the Papa of Rome. However, the 
day of reverse arrived, and now the Simonoff pos- 
sesses neither village nor serf. But still it retains its 
hold on the affections and the devotions of the Rus- 
sian people, and flourishes in a quiet, sensible, unos- 
tentatious way, keeping its fine buildings in good 
order, maintaining a few monks, and supporting 

p 2 



212 GOING TO THE FAIR. 

its services in its various and highly-ornamental 
churches. There are six churches — once not too 
many for its numerous monks and ecclesiastical dis- 
play in its palmy days — now, in its hour of shrunk 
proportions, too like a mockery of grandeur ! 

Hearing one day that there was to be a fair held at 
the Simonoff Convent, I thought it a good opportunity 
to pay it a visit. A fair at a convent sounded like a 
novelty. So I drove up there in a droschky, the dis- 
tance being between three and four miles from my 
hotel. On my way along the river bank round the 
bend of the Moskwa in the town, I passed numerous 
knots of people, the women all in holiday costume, 
and the men in their best, all on the way to the Simo- 
noff. At length the houses ceased, and we came out 
on a sandy slope, an open space, our droschky reduced 
to a walk through the deep track. Other droschkies 
and carriages, as well as telegas and tarantasses were 
on all sides toiling up the slope, and people on foot 
all cheery and laughing, all going to the fair — a gene- 
ral holiday. It was the day of St Sergius, the saint 
and founder of the convent. Reaching the top of the 
sandy slope, we found the vallum or boundary bank 
and ditch of the city running right and left, and over 
this parties of country people were clambering to join 



SUPERB BELL-TOWER. 213 

the town throng. Passing a small wood or plantation 
of fir-trees, in the shade of which were reposing 
numerous little family circles, with their baskets of 
provisions, just arrived across the neighbouring vallum 
from their villages, we came out on a smooth broad 
space of turf. On this stood the Simonoff, its fine 
and lofty and ancient walls extending right across 
from near the vallum to within a few feet of the 
precipitous hill towards the river and the meadow. 
Over these towered up the cupolas and minarets of 
the various churches within, while near the angle by 
the pitch of the hill stood the superb bell-tower, 
rising storey over storey above the grand gateway, 
to a height of more than three hundred feet. This 
bell-tower is said to command a really better view of 
Moscow than either the Ivan Veliki tower in the 
Kremlin or the height of the Sparrow Hills. 

The large open space of turf was now covered with 
some two or three hundred carriages, while the people 
on foot might be counted by thousands. It was a grand 
day at the SimonoiF. 

I had with me an Italian as an interpreter, and so 
leaving our droschky on the grass, we tried to gain an 
entrance to the interior by the great gate beneath the 
bell tower. But this was locked for this day, and we 



214 FAVOURITE COLOUR. 

were directed to a gate elsewhere. Falling into 
the stream of people round the angle of the wall on the 
pitch of the hill, we found a narrow roadway under 
the ponderous battlemented inclosure for two or three 
hundred yards, and then we came to another gateway 
with a fine tower above it. This was the one permit- 
ted entrance to the courts within on this day, and here 
the different streams of people meeting from opposing 
sides along the wall, as well as another surging up the 
the hill at this point from a footpath across the mea- 
dow, there was a gathering. Not being in a hurry, 
I got out of the crowd and climbed a bank between 
the road and the pitch, and so could look on in peace 
at the moving panorama. There were no gentry in 
this mass, but all were rural folk or town populace. 
All were well dressed, and there was every kind of 
costume from different parts of the country. 

Amongst all people that I have seen, with the ex- 
ception of the Poles in the villages, who have a ghast- 
ly taste for being clothed entirely in white, and the 
Bohemians, who have a funereal fondness for a general 
suit of black, the usual costume has a strong admixture 
of red. The passion colour of Russia is decidedly red. 
Now in this crowd almost every woman wore some 
article of this colour, either her cap on her head, 



GOOD TEMPER OF THE PEOPLE. 215 

or a kerchief on her neck, or her dress was red, or 
her bodice, or her stockings, — while the favourite 
wear of the men of the peasant class was a red shirt 
worn as a tunic with a crimson belt. One of the com- 
mon articles of dress of the women was a Scotch 
woollen shawl of a red and black check. This Scotch 
shawl is a grand discovery for them, as it is light and 
warm, and is of the darling hue — red. 

Certainly the Russian people are a good-tempered, 
easy race. Here was a mass of persons all huddled 
together at this one gate, and yet I*saw no pushing, 
no crushing, no quarrelling ; and yet there was plenty 
of occasion for it. There were big burly men with their 
wives and children, heated and dusty from a long coun- 
try walk, the women having borne the burden and 
heat of the day, which means having carried a thump- 
ing child • and here were numbers of young peasant 
lads in rough canvas dresses, — all having one object, 
the gateway, and yet all were patient and good-tem- 
pered, chatting, laughing, happy. 

There was another use being made of the day of St. 
Sergius on the meadow under the hill. Just in front 
of me the stream of people from the river bank came 
up the pitch ; but immediately below me out on the 
grass by the pathway were several knots of young men 



216 " HEADS AND TAILS." 

and lads standing about a little apart. These lads 
were all gambling. They stood in circles of eight 
and ten, and each lad pf a circle took it in turn to 
toss a coin into the air and let it fall on the ground. I 
asked my guide what the game was. It appeared to 
be gambling pure — a variety of the good old game of 
" heads and tails." Each man of a circle was called 
on to declare that " he stood a kopeck " on the toss. 
Then the player having ascertained that all had de- 
clared, tossed, crying as he tossed " heads " or " tails." 
If it came up heads, then he received all round ; and 
if tails, then he paid all round, or vice versa, as he cried 
on tossing. There were five or six of these groups. 
Some of them played high, and some played low. 
We could hear their challenges. One young fellow 
was very excited. Before he tossed the coin he cried 
out "two kopecks" to his circle. This group was play- 
ing high. u Two kopecks." There were some little 
hesitations, but presently they all declared, the young 
fellow saying little irritating things — tantamount to 
" Now then — who's afraid ? — only two kopecks — never 
say die — make your fortune — only two — all declared? 
— up she goes ! Heads !" The fair at the convent 
evidently had a side which was not religious and de- 
voted to the Virgin and St. Sergius. 



WAITING FOR THE PAPA. 217 

The interior of the Simonoff consists of a number of 
large and small buildings irregularly placed all round 
near the wall — with the exception of the principal 
church — the centre being left open for grass lawns 
and shady avenues of dwarf limes, and pathways 
paved with flags, leading in various directions to the 
several churches. This interior is very pretty. On 
ordinary days it is a quiet retreat, inviting to study — 
a shady, orderly spot, like a college garden ; a place 
of religious repose with an atmosphere of peace. But 
on this day of the fete it was a stirring scene of lay 
life, an invasion of the sacred precincts by the mun- 
dane, gaiety-loving outer world. People were lying 
on the grass in parties, or sitting on the benches 
under the avenues, or strolling along the many path- 
ways in knots. There was one of these — a wood- 
paved way — leading across the grass from the gate- 
way by which we had entered to the great church, 
and on this was collected all the way along a number 
of people. My guide said that the principal of the 
convent would pass along this path from his rooms by 
the gateway to the church, and the people were wait- 
ing for him. So I sat down on a seat at the edge of 
the path near the flight of steps up to the church, and 
waited too. 



218 A PEASANT WOMAN. 

It was a pleasant scene, the quiet — for there was no 
noise beyond the low hum of the people — the shade, 
the grass, the cool paved way, the pretty dresses of 
the village folk, the many children on the turf, not 
romping about, but orderly and seated with their 
parents ; and here and there a few of the better classes 
from the city, apart and in knots of twos and threes 
in the avenue, in silk or muslin, with fashionable bon- 
nets. There were strawberries too going about in 
little white basins, and these were the centres of small 
happy groups on the turf. As I sat, a peasant 
woman with her red cap and blue dress came and 
stood near to wait for the papa, and with her was an 
engaging small girl of ten years of age. Her delicate 
face and fair hair tied up with a slip of pink silk, and 
her pretty brown eyes, were very attractive. Although 
I could not understand a word of her village talk, 
nor she of my efforts at classic Russ, we were soon in 
deep converse on the matter of a pink sash round her 
white dress, and ribbons of the same colour in her 
sleeves, and some white glittering beads in her jaunty 
cap ; and we were in the middle of a marked flirta- 
tion, and I was meditating an advance into straw- 
berries, when suddenly there was a stir among the 
people, and an arranging of themselves into two lines 



THE SUPERIOR. 219 

on either side the pathway. The Superior was com- 
ing. Presently I saw the lines of people surging 
backwards and forwards, the quiet order rapidly 
broken, people rushing about, women and children 
hurrying over the grass, and then there was an in- 
creased hum of voices. The disturbance approached 
steadily and slowly, and at last it gained those before 
me. And now I saw that the cause of this was a 
slight and venerable man, in a priest's dress, with a 
small black cap on his head, of cloth, full and hang- 
ing down behind, and ornamented in front with a bit 
of crimson velvet, and whose hands every person was 
determined to kiss as he advanced up the pathway. 
Four or five at a time, men and women, would make 
a dart at his left hand, and having gained possession 
of it, would kiss it eagerly, fiercely, while others from 
the other side of the pathway got in front of him and 
fought for his right hand — they would have it. The 
old man stopped till the devotees had had their way. 
When they had kissed it they fell back contented, out 
of the way, and the patriarch advanced a step or two, 
till arrested again by the same furious devotion. He 
appeared to try to get on and to avoid some of this 
expression of love, and his old thin face turned from 
side to side wearily as he muttered a few words at 



220 DEMONSTRATIVE REGARD. 

times. When he had both his hands free for a mo- 
ment then he raised them and crossed himself hur- 
riedly and uttered a blessing ; but in an instant they 
were dashed at and pulled down again, and, as may 
be said, " devoured with kisses." So he got on, up to 
the steps at the entrance of the church. But here the 
struggle became worse than ever. The whole flight 
was a mass of people, so was the platform, and so was 
along covered raised arcade which ran round the 
sacred edifice. The old man mounted the steps at 
last, and passed into the arcade, and so into the 
church, thoroughly hustled by the ardent and reso- 
lute hand-kissing crowd. How glad he must be, 
methought, to be inside and at his ease once more, 
poor old gentleman. But there is perhaps a certain 
gratification to the spirit of man even in this obtrusive 
and enormously demonstrative regard. Going into 
the arcade soon after, and following its course round 
the interior fane, I found various small grated open- 
ings from the one to the other, so that people in the 
outer arcade were able to see and hear all that went 
forward in the interior. The church was more than 
ordinarily rich in gilding and painting, as became what 
was once the principal convent in Russia. But it was 
singularly small, so much of the interior being taken 



VIEW FROM THE TOWER. 221 

up with the usual pillars and the surrounding corridor. 
Walking along this I found various small bodies of 
devotees, and in one corner a peasant lad in grey- 
white canvas prostrate on the stones. After a time 
he got up, crossed himself with much earnestness, and 
then bowed down his head on to the stones again, 
and prostrated himself at length. He continued this 
succession of devotional movements for some time, 
and appeared to be quite wrapped in his offering of 
prayer and expression of humiliation. At last he 
picked up his cap and walked away slowly, with a 
certain sadness in his countenance and manner. I 
certainly never saw in any country a youth of this 
class so devout and apparently so impressed with 
what he was doing. 

From this I went to the famous tower. The stair- 
case was crowded with men and boys, also with 
pigeons, which disputed with us the possession of 
their customary dwelling. From the height of three 
hundred feet added to that of the hill on which the 
tower stands, the scene is truly grand. You are 
nearer to the city than when on the Sparrow Hills, 
and at a much higher elevation than when on the 
Ivan Veliki in the Kremlin. It was a sunny, still 
day, and the whole city fairly sparkled with its white 



2*22 PEASANT LADS. 

houses and green roofs and its gardens, and its hun- 
dreds of gilded and glittering cupolas and belfries. 
Then there was the river flowing through it with its 
living and shining and graceful sweep of water, while 
on the meadow below the tower, and up the sandy 
slope, were the streams of people coming out to the 
convent. On the grassy table-land were the scat- 
tered masses of carriages, and in the courts of the 
convent were the crowds of gaily-dressed folk — a 
general festivity. From here too I discovered that 
the chief part of the fete was going on beyond the 
walls on the eastern side towards the vallum, beneath 
a grove of fine elm trees. 

While I was admiring the remarkable scene from 
the topmost chamber of the tower, two or three young 
peasants, dressed in grey-white canvas — lads similar 
to the devout youth in the arcade of the church — ■ 
were very anxious to make my acquaintance, continu- 
ally following me from one window or opening to 
another, and pressing on me with a smiling familiarity, 
and addressing me in Russian. Through my com- 
panion I had some simple talk with these men as to 
their ideas of the fair, of the view of the city, of their 
village life. I must say that most of the notions I 
gained from them consisted of whatever may be found 



SERVING OUT KVAS. 223 

in broad grins. However I may as well here add that 
some little time afterwards, on descending the lower 
stairs, I found my pocket lighter by a "Murray" 
which had been reposing therein, and which my com- 
panion told me I should perhaps find in the " Thief 
Market," near my hotel, for sale. But I never saw 
it again, or my young friends in grey white canvas, or 
the youthful devotee. 

Leaving the tower I followed a crowd up some 
steps to a large building, and found we w T ere on our 
way to the kitchen. Here in an ante-room were two 
monks, the cook and his assistant. They were in 
long black dresses, and were in an extremity of heat, 
and, I may say, of dirt. They were engaged in serv- 
ing out kvas — a native beer — to all comers gratis on 
this day. However they were very courteous and 
civil men, and were anxious that I should not drink 
out of the enormous copper can which one of them 
held up for the peasants and others to take a good 
" pull " at the kvas. But I took my turn with my 
big and bearded and canvas-habited neighbours, the 
ponderous copper can and the gratuitous beer and 
the burly monk having about them a smack of ancient 
time and custom which recommended them much to 
my fancy. The kitchen was closed, perhaps pru- 
dently on a day of such doings. 



224 THE FAIR. 

So I went out to the fete proper. This was the 
fair. Here were rows of booths stretching along 
under two rows of fine spreading trees, three or four 
lines of tents, and broad walks of grass between them. 
Here were some thousands of people in every variety 
of garb, many well dressed and merely walking up 
and down in the shade, while others kept up a con- 
tinual shouting of their several wares for sale. One 
long line of booths was entirely occupied by tea- 
drinkers. These were neat small square places, 
some thirty or forty in number, built of white linen, 
strained over a slight wooden frame, and capable each 
of holding a table and seats all round for six or eight 
persons. There were white curtains to the entrance, 
and every one all down the line was occupied by a 
little party of men and women. The samovar was 
steaming on every table, and cups and saucers and 
various breads, or honey, or melons, or cakes, were 
on the white table-cloth. I found one of these at 
last vacant, and took possession, so that while drink- 
ing tea I could watch the humours of the place. 
First, a man would pass with a pile of melons, yellow 
and green, rich and gorgeous, on a tray on his head, 
offering them at a fabulously low price — ten kopecks 
a-piece — about three pence. Melons on a hot day in 



SALE OF HONEY. 225 

the shade after a dusty walk seemed to be in great 
demand. In the centre of the broad way a seller of 
honey, with a stand, stopped just opposite my tea- 
room and offered his goods, large combs floating in 
broad pans of liquid honey. This seemed to be a 
favourite object of taste. Strapping young peasants 
stopped and bargained for it — so many kopecks for a 
cut of comb in a basin ; and then they ate it, standing 
there and cutting off large mouthfuls with the honey- 
merchant's knife. They threw back their shock 
heads and let huge lumps all reeking with the 
liquid fall into their capacious jaws. Sometimes when 
a man had finished one basin he hung about the 
stand, and then bargained eagerly for a second, and 
devoured it with gusto. It gave one the idea of a 
grand vigorous physique to look at these ample- 
bearded and big-bodied men tossing off these basins 
of honey, rich and luscious, and then sauntering off at 
their ease, perhaps to the next honey stall, for 
another basin. Then men passed up and down with 
capacious trays of bread on their heads, the national 
kalatch forming always the greater part of the store. 
People in the tea-rooms bought them freely. Beggars 
perseveringly paid visits to every tea-room in turn, a 
woman and two children being the favourite arrange- 

Q 



226 ORGAN-GRINDERS. 

ment in this line of business. When they had col- 
lected a fair meal, such as the leavings of a tea-pot of 
some just vacated chamber poured out into a can 
carried for this purpose, scraps of honey-comb, broken 
kalatches, sundry lollypops, or some melon rind, they 
sat down and discussed all this cheerily, and 
expended much jollity on the lollypops. When 
refreshed they went at once into business at 
the very next booth, resuming their little drama of 
deep sorrow, and bitter want, and general utter 
weariness of life. All this time there were the usual 
and universal barrel-organs going up and down the 
broad way. There were a number of these — the 
street music of Moscow as of London. A man always 
carried the instrument, and a woman invariably fol- 
lowed close behind. To judge by appearances of the 
state of the organ world one would say that in London 
almost every organ-grinder was a bachelor, while in 
Moscow every one indulged in the sweets of wedded 
life. They are travelled men. These were French or 
Italian. I spoke to one, and his acknowledgment 
for my kopecks was in good English, " Thank you, 
sir — much obliged," a pleasant surprise. The man 
knew London, and he played me two or three of the 
old accustomed airs ; and I shut my eyes and fancied 



shopkeeper's wives. 227 

myself for the moment, while listening, far away in 
the wonted haunts of the city on the Thames. There 
were many well-dressed women walking about, and 
my companion explained the different status of the 
wearers. Two women would pass dressed in rich 
dark silk, deep brown, or dark green, or such like, 
and wearing on the head a close-fitting black silk cap, 
the whole style quite plain and without ornament. 
There was no shawl, and only a small simple kerchief 
round the neck. These were the upper class of shop- 
keepers, the women of the first Moscow houses. As 
a rule these were of large stout frame and of dark 
complexion. Then would come two — they were all 
in pairs — equally richly dressed, only that the colour 
was a little brighter, and the head-dress was a dark 
kerchief neatly bound round it. These were of the 
second class of shops. And then there were others, 
also in silken robe, but the colours stronger, and on 
the head was a dark kerchief, having long ends of 
brown or pink. These were of a third class. The 
Sclave type seemed to be strongly marked in most of 
them. To judge of their business by their size, one 
would say shopkeeping was a flourishing way of life 
in Moscow, and that good eating and drinking formed 
a considerable part of trade. 

Q2 



228 SIMONOFF FAIR. 

Beyond the grove of trees and the booths there 
was a broad meadow of soft and brilliantly green 
grass, and here were groups of people scattered over 
it in all directions. But the SimonofF Fair was de- 
ficient in many things which constitute the glories of 
a British festa of this kind. The SimonofF Fair was 
limited in its gaieties, and its revels were subdued, as 
a convent festa should be. There were no caravans 
of wild beasts from Africa, or farthest Ind, — no 
theatre for the Thespians, no stage for Shakespeare's 
heroes to strut their little hour, no circus for horses 
of genius, no Aunt Sally, no giant from China. 
People on the meadow seemed to be engaged princi- 
pally in doing nothing particular. The only amuse- 
ment appeared to be an occasional circle of perhaps 
twenty persons seated on the grass, in the centre of 
which was a man with some instrument of music, a 
tambourine or a kind of drum, and he led a song, the 
circle joining in chorus. The man was dressed in a 
costume of pink knickerbockers and vest, and a cap 
with feathers cocked jauntily on his head, and bright 
stockings and slippers. This seemed a kind of musical 
uniform. The men had good manly voices, and the 
chorus was thoroughly energetic. The scene rather 
reminded me of the Nile boat singer and his en- 



DANDIES OF THE FAIR. 229 

cirling chorus, for the song appeared to be a kind of 
impromptu, the man saying what suited him, to amuse 
his auditory. People clustered round these circles 
and seemed to enjoy the sallies of the singer and his 
music. Men in red came about with refreshments, 
trays of cakes and various breads, and others with 
huge glass decanter-shaped bottles of a dark red 
liquid, cherry- water. Among the groups were a 
number of peasant families, father, mother, and chil- 
dren, strolling about at their ease, well-dressed and 
happy, the older men in dark cloth, the women in 
bright-coloured dresses, shawls, and caps. But the 
most remarkable figures gf all were the men ' of the 
well-to-do peasant class, men from thirty to fifty years 
of age, in the national costume. These were the dan- 
dies of the fair. I observed one man with greyish 
hair more than usually got up. This man's long boots 
were of fine polished leather, and were wrinkled from 
the calf to the ankle, quite in the style of the Hessian 
boot of our younger days. His knickerbockers were 
of black velvet, and the red tunic was spotless. The 
buttons of his dark vest were red, and the cord round 
his waist was of silk, with neat tassels. A gorgeous 
brooch was in his black neck-tie, and the small cap 
on his short grey hair was of black velvet. His 



230 EMANCIPATED SERFS. 

face was clean shaven, and his countenance bright and 
full of intelligence, the figure tall, and slight, and 
graceful, while the never-failing dark great-coat over 
all gave to the whole man a look of strength and sub- 
stance. But the women with him were of the real 
peasant class, in brightest of colours. 

" These people were serfs the other day," said my 
companion, in reply to my question, " all of those 
you see, with a few exceptions ; now they are all 
free. That man," pointing to the " dandy" with grey 
hair, " and those dressed like him, had probably been 
permitted by their masters to trade, and they made a 
good thing of it." 



231 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Kitai Gorod — The Bazaars — Their Great Extent — The Shop-keepers 
— Playing at Draughts — Commerce in " the Rows" — Jewish Money- 
dealers — The Balance of Trade — Drain and Hoarding of the Pre- 
cious Metals — Exhaustion produced by the Crimean War — Com- 
parative Value of Silver and Paper Roubles — Prevalence of Forgery 
— Curiosities of Russian Finance — Objections to War on the Part 
of Russia — Madness of the War Party and Fanaticism of the Re- 
ligious Party-»-Questionable Practices — Russia and her Roman 
Catholic Subjects. 

TMMEDIATELY in front of the windows at the 
Hotel Dusaux was, as I have said before, across 
the Boulevard a flight of steps and an archway in 
the Kitai wall by which foot-people were continually 
passing at all hours into and out of the Kitai Gorod. 
This was my way too, for it was a resource and an 
amusement, when too hot for much walking, to cross 
the sunny Boulevard, and plunge at once into the 
narrow and shady streets of the Kitai. At the far 
side of this, and near the Kremlin, were the bazaars 
of Moscow. The natives called these the Rows, being 



232 THE KITAI G0R0D. 

long lines of narrow straight covered ways. How 
luxurious it was on these sultry and glaring days of 
August or September to get away from the house and 
the dusty Boulevard and the blazing sunshine into 
the bazaars ! From the hot street, where droschky 
horses stood about in pink linen to shade them from 
the burning rays and teazing flies, it was more than a 
solace to turn suddenly from the glare, which made 
your eyes ache, into the gloom of the bazaar. How 
cool and refreshing and soothing it was ! Behind 
you was the street, looking like a lighted caldron, 
or the burning fiery furnace into which Shadrach and 
his companions were cast ; and before you, extending 
far on and on, the extremity invisible or only glim- 
mering as a small point of light, was the long, dim, 
cool, silent passage or row. These always reminded 
me of the straight street at Damascus, or the street of 
the cotton and linen merchants at Cairo — so quiet, so 
grateful to every sense, were they in their dim light 
and their repose. There was this difference, however, 
that in the Syrian and Egyptian bazaars there were 
donkeys with ladies on them, as in the days of the 
Caliph Haroun Alraschid, making their purchases of 
the pale and handsome Eastern merchants, as they sat 
among their goods in the shop front, or, maybe, car- 



THE ROWS. 233 

rying on a little quiet love affair under the screen of 
muslins ; while here, in the Moscow bazaars, were no 
four-footed animals bearing closely-veiled Sultanas, or 
British ladies, engaged in either love or shopping. 
Here all were on foot. These rows were never crowd- 
ed, for they were of such extent — miles, indeed, of 
them — that although there was more trade carried 
on in them than in all the rest of Moscow put to- 
gether, yet such was their extent, that the numbers 
of buyers were too scattered to produce any crowd at 
any point. This absence of many people at any one 
point aided to give an air of idleness to the place. 
Their breadth varied. Sometimes they were fourteen 
or fifteen feet across from shop to shop, and some- 
times only ten or twelve ; while at some angles, 
where were cross bazaars, the breadth might be 
nearer twenty feet. All were paved with large 
smooth flags, and were roofed in at some fourteen or 
fifteen feet from the ground, the shaded light let in 
by small side windows in the roofs. As you strolled 
leisurely along, the owners of the shops, all well- 
dressed men, in the unfailing large loose Russian 
coat, would be sitting or lounging on their counters, 
or on the shop front in conversation, or often enough 
seated on low chairs outside the shops on the pave- 



234 



PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS. 



ment with a small table or stool between them on 
which was a draught-board. 

Two often would be playing at draughts, while 
others looked on. How often as I strolled along by 
these men thus engaged at their ease, I was reminded 
of the Damascus men occupied in the same way, but 
at chess instead of draughts ! Had these Moscow sy- 
barites been playing at chess I could never have re- 
sisted the temptation to stop and watch them, or even 
to sit down and play a game. The place and the 
scene, the quiet and the ease, were so inviting. If 
I had won the game, how natural it would have 
been to buy something of the loser, and only beat 
him down about one third of the price asked for the 
article, instead of half; and if I had lost, to fix on 
something good in the shop, and try to balance the 
matter of loss and gain by a laughing doggedness of 
will to pay much less than half the price, and carry 
it off. But the Muscovites did not play chess, though 
I wandered all through the bazaars in search of a 
chess-player. They all played draughts, but no chess 
— and draughts and I have no friendship. 

It was a custom, as well as a constant amusement, 
to make purchases of these men. Nothing could be 
more courteous than their manner of inviting your 



COMMERCE IN THE ROWS. 235 

custom as you stopped a moment and looked at their 
goods. If you declined and passed on, they thanked 
you — for the courtesy of stopping. If you singled 
out any article, or inquired for one, there was an an- 
xiety to offer it, and the most studied eagerness to 
please you — and then began the combat of courtesy 
and gain. As a rule, you always met the price asked 
with a shake of the head — a mild objection; and then 
this being the first blow, others followed ; until per- 
haps after ten minutes of conflict, you holding on 
steadily to your offer, and the man abating and hesi- 
tating till he had reached the point below which he 
would not descend, another man, perhaps the shop- 
owner, would come forward from somewhere, put on 
a hard look, and carry the article away to the back 
of the shop, as if to put it away. The matter was 
finished, the struggle was over — he could not sell it 
at such a flagrant loss — his credit was concerned in 
not letting it go. Then you would put on a hard look 
too, and walk away. But as you went with one ear 
listening backwards, you would hear a call, " You 
shall have it ;" and then all the assumed sullenness 
was fled, and smiles were in its place, and you se- 
cured your prize — and perhaps commenced another 
little similar joust. This was the way and custom of 



236 



JEWISH MONEY-DEALERS. 



commerce in " the Rows." Even when I gained my 
prize for less than half the original demand, I was 
always told by the experienced at the hotel that I 
had " paid dear for my whistle." There are a great 
number of small ornaments of native Moscow manu- 
facture, and every day that I went into the Rows 
there was always something fresh to tempt the rou- 
bles from my purse ; but the fault of this system pur- 
sued in buying and selling is that you never know if 
you are paying the fair value of any article. 

One day strolling through these shady ways as 
usual, I saw two or three men with piles of gold and 
silver coins as their stock in trade. Here were gold 
pieces of ten roubles and five roubles, and silver ones 
of a rouble, half a rouble, a quarter, and so on. On 
asking my companion, an Italian, where these men 
had these coins from, as there were none in general 
circulation, he said in a laconic way, as if that were 
a complete and satisfactory reply to any question on 
money, " These men are all Jews." More than this 
my companion knew nothing. 

On applying to an Englishman resident in Moscow, 
a day or two afterwards, on this subject of gold and 
silver, and observing on the singularity of a great 
country such as Russia having no gold or silver in com- 



BALANCE OF TRADE. 



237 



mon use, but only factitious copper and depreciated 
paper, he said — " Our money condition is a lamentable 
one here ; the balance of trade with the foreigner is 
heavily against us, and so, what with the hoarding by 
the natives of all silver they can manage to obtain and 
keep, and the consumption of the precious metals 
in payment to the foreigner of the interest of our debt, 
and the further payment of the foreigner for articles of 
import beyond what our exports balance, there is not 
much silver or gold left for general use in the country. 
You see," he went on, " the greater part of Russian ex- 
port is of bulky articles, raw produce, and the greater 
part of our import consists of manufactured goods. 
One ship-load of the latter coming here requires a good 
many ship-loads of the former going abroad to pay for 
it, and as the Russian wants to have the enjoyment of 
all the articles of civilized life — all the most expensive 
things — he finds in the end that he has not enough 
of cheap raw produce to pay for the dear articles of 
finished skill, without paying away his gold and silver 
besides. This, and the interest of the national loans to 
Rothschild, and Hope, and so on — some of the heavy 
cost of the Crimean War — which, of course, must 
be paid in metals, and not in worthless paper, and the 
hoarding by the people, utterly exhaust them, or 



238 



RUSSIAN FINANCE. 



nearly so. In fact, if we did not issue paper we should 
not go on at all. We are like the Americans with 
their greenbacks. We go on with our greenbacks 
here, but it is an utterly fictitious condition of things."* 

* Since the return of the author to England the following communi- 
cation has been made to him in writing by a gentleman in London well 
acquainted with the subject : — 

" The facts stated respecting the present condition of Eussian trade 
and currency are undoubtedly correct, but the causes that have led up 
to this condition of Russian finances are, I think, only partially so. It 
is true enough no doubt that for years past Russia has imported foreign 
goods very largely in excess of the value of her exports, and the balance 
of trade thus arising has in the usual course of things been paid by 
specie remittances. I hardly think, however, that this drain on her 
specie resources can account altogether for the total disappearance of 
the precious metals that seems to have taken place. I believe that the 
greatest cause is the Crimean War, which so completely and utterly 
exhausted Russia in her resources of men and money that she has never 
been able to recover herself ; and it is, I think, the opinion of those who 
are most intimately acquainted with such subjects, that it will still take 
years for the country to right itself in its finances. Russia has, how- 
ever, boundless resources, and if she can only keep at peace, and also 
modify her late extravagant expenditure in unproductive Government 
works, there can, I think, be no doubt that the development of her 
foreign trade will gradually put her on her legs again. The Russians 
no doubt have a habit of hoarding coinage whenever they can, and this 
fact, together with that of the Government making no fresh issues, 
accounts for the circulating medium being so entirely paper. The 
Government have the power of increasing this to any extent they please, 
and a too abundant issue of notes of course sufficiently accounts for the 
depreciation of this medium." 

It would appear from the above that there is scarcely an appreciable 
difference in the opinions held at Moscow and in London as to the 
condition of the finances of Russia and of the causes of this, while the 
views of well informed persons in both cities as to the disastrous effects 
on her financial prospects of a foreign war are identical. 



FORGERY OF GOVERNMENT PAPER. 239 

I observed that on purchasing a silver rouble in the 
bazaar, as a test of the relative value of the silver and 
the paper, I had been obliged to pay a paper rouble 
and seven-pence English besides as the price of a 
silver rouble — a heavy depreciation of the Govern- 
ment paper, equal to more than one-sixth ; for if you 
take the silver rouble to represent three shillings, the 
paper rouble thus represents rather less than half a 
crown. 

" And this," said my companion, " does not tell 
the whole malady. We have forgery to a great ex- 
tent, a constant forgery of the Government paper; 
and this is almost winked at by the Government." 

" Winked at by the Government !" said I, in as- 
tonishment, and for a moment the idea ran through 
my mind of England in the condition of having no 
sovereigns or shillings or half crowns in general cir- 
culation, but only paper and halfpence, and our five- 
pound notes depreciated, and passing at about four 
pounds five shillings each ; and these only in Great 
Britain, and worth much less at Paris and refused in 
payment except as a favour. 

" I will tell you a story," said my companion, " and 
you shall judge for yourself. There is a large Go- 
vernment office, or bank, here in Moscow, where 



240 



STORY OF A FORGED NOTE. 



money is paid out to the officials, and where the 
taxes are paid in. An acquaintance assured me only 
the other day that he had occasion to receive a sum 
of money from the Government, and accordingly he 
went to this office and presented his written demand 
for the sum due. He received it in paper roubles, of 
course. As he had to pay in some taxes he went to 
another department in the same building, and offered 
in payment some of the paper he had that moment 
received from the Government cashier. The receiver 
of taxes examined all the rouble notes carefully, and 
among them, to the astonishment of my friend, he ob- 
jected to receiving one, as it was a forgery. ' But,' 
said my friend, ' that cannot be, because I have only 
this instant received these roubles at the cashier's 
office in this building.' Still the man objected. ' The 
note is forged, and I cannot receive it ; I know no- 
thing of where you obtained it.' My friend paid his 
taxes, and then returned to the cashier from whom 
he had received the forged note. Presenting it to him, 
he said, i This is a forged note which you gave me 
just now, please to give me another.' ' What do I 
know about forged notes ?' replied the cashier ; £ we 
have no forged notes here.' But my friend in- 
sisted — ' You paid me those notes half an hour since, 



MONEY MATTERS IN RUSSIA. 241 

and when I offered them to the receiver of taxes in 
the next corridor, he refused this one as a forgery. 
Of course it is a mistake on your part.' f I know no- 
thing of forged notes,' said the cashier ; 1 we make no 
mistakes. You must have made the mistake and got 
it from some one else.' And so the cashier closed the 
door of his caisse, and the discussion." 

" And what," said I, "did your friend do with his 
forged note ? For what sum was it ?" 

" It was a fifty rouble note. Well, he took it to 
his own banker, and told his story. ' What can I do 
with it ?' said he to the banker. The reply was very 
curious. The banker called up one of his senior 
clerks and showed him the note. i What is it worth ?' 
said he to his clerk. 1 It is worth forty-five roubles/ 
said the clerk ; and so my friend parted with his 
forged note at a loss of five roubles." 

" But," said I, " how could the banker afford to 
pay so much for the note, and how could it serve him 
to purchase it at all?" 

My acquaintance laughed. 

" There are very curious things take place," said he, 
"in money matters in this country. The banker's 
clerk has told me since that he would much rather 
have anyone bring forged notes to him as a matter of 

R 



242 IMPOLICY OF WAE. 

business, than good ones, because there is more money 
to be made of these in disposing of them than there 
is in the usual way of money business." 

Certainly, when one considers these two little facts 
connected with the Government bank at Moscow and 
the private bankers, my companion might well smile 
and say, " There are very curious things done in mo- 
ney matters in Moscow." 

In connection with the subject of money I may re- 
late the following : — A party of gentlemen one day 
had been talking of the financial condition of Russia, 
and the conversation turned on the rumours of her 
again urging on Turkey reforms in respect of the 
Christians in the East, even to the extent of threats. 
u War !" exclaimed one gentleman, " what have we 
to do with war now ? We want peace — that is what 
we want, to carry out our internal changes, and get 
the country into some kind of order. We are all a 
tort et a travers — at sixes and sevens — about our mo- 
ney matters, our law, our regulations about land and 
wages, and all this requires peace. Why, we have 
no money for war." I observed that it appeared to 
foreigners they had plenty of work at home to oc- 
cupy the Government in arranging all these internal 
matters without a foreign war. " We do not want 



PEACE INDISPENSABLE. 243 

war, and we cannot afford war now," was the reply. 
" How can we go into an expensive war without mo- 
ney ? Look at our financial condition — look at our 
circulation, mere paper, bad paper, and copper — no 
gold and no silver, and everything in a state of poli- 
tical change in the country. It would be like mad- 
ness to go into a war." I observed that they always 
had a little war going on to keep their hands in to- 
wards India in the far East. " Ah ! that is quite an- 
other thing," was the rejoinder ; "it does not cost so 
much to keep up a few troops out there, and beat 
those half-barbarian peoples, and make them pay as 
we go on for being beaten — that is one thing, but it 
is another to enter upon an immense war with the 
great powers of Europe, who have enormous armies 
and navies and unlimited wealth in money and re- 
sources, while we are impoverished, and have not 
half recovered from the last war. No, no ; we have 
a war-party, of course, who look at everything through 
that medium, but who are bad politicians ; and we 
have a fanatical party in religion, who are worse than 
the others, and who are madmen in politics. No, 
no ; let us have peace, and get things into order at 
home, and not break treaties and set all the world 
against us, and make another failure into the bargain." 

r 2 



244 UNDIGNIFIED CONDUCT OF RUSSIA. 

It need only be added that we have lately seen 
the war party and the religious party push on the 
Russian Government to the very verge of war with 
the Turks, and then, when the Government found it- 
self in the presence of resisting Turkey and of disap- 
proving France and England and Austria, stop short 
of the last resort, and listen to the voice of prudence 
of her best political friends at home, and mark the 
threatening state of her finances, and make a rather 
undignified retreat from her menacing position behind 
angry demands and pompous advice. It is scarcely 
worthy of a great power like Russia to resort to such 
questionable practices as those in Greece and Crete. 
What would she say to any Roman Catholic power 
which should act towards her own subjects of that 
faith in Poland and Russia on account of religion as 
she does not hesitate to do towards Turkey in regard 
of the subjects of that power of the Greek faith on 
account of their religion ? So long as Russia treats 
her own Roman Catholic subjects with such intoler- 
ance, Christians as they are, she can hardly expect 
much credit in the eyes of the world for religious and 
Christian objects in her conduct towards Turkey. 



245 



CHAPTER XV. 

Visit to Mjni Novgorod — Travelling in Eussia in Old Times — Carriages 
on Russian Railways — Persistent Smokers — The Passion for Tea — 
Convenient Arrangement — My First Impression of Mjni — Peculi- 
arities of the Fair — Affluence of Foreign Merchants — The Chinese 
Row —Life of the Merchants during the Fair — Roads in Russia — 
Cossacks — Magnificent View from the Plateau — Vessels in the 
River — Former Importance of Mjni — Curious Story relating to the 
Sacred Bell of Mjni — En Gargon at the Fair — A Russian recherche 
Dinner — Visit to the Landlord's Fish-Wells — The Tea-Stores — 
Shops and Shopping — A Young Noble and his Wife — Decline of 
Mjni. 

A NY one going to Moscow would be considered as 
leaving a prime part of his Russian visit unpaid 
if he omitted Nijni Novgorod. In the old days, how- 
ever — which means only thirty years since — a visit to 
Nijni was a very serious matter. 

All travelling in Russia required something more 
than a mere fancy to see any given place ; it required 
a strong desire in the making of the preparations, and 
a strong will to carry them to a conclusion. Two or 
three hundred miles of journeying on roads which 



246 VISIT TO NIJNI NOVGOROD. 

were only tracks, in carriages without springs, and, 
when stopping for what should be rest, finding inns 
where was an unfurnished room and a hard bedstead 
for the weary man, but no bedding beyond what he 
took with him ; all these were troubles which a man 
did not face without an effort. 

Thus the journey from Moscow to Nijni was a mat- 
ter not lightly to be undertaken. The getting there 
was one thing, and then the getting back again was 
another. It was very easy to say, " Go to Nijni," but 
the going was not easy at all. But now the day of 
these things is past and gone. My acquaintances fre- 
quently put to me this question, " Of course you will 
go to Nijni? There is a railway — -it takes only twelve 
hours." 

Besides this, our consul was kind enough to aid my 
visit to Nijni by an offer to give me a letter of intro- 
duction to an English gentleman there, a merchant. 
This was an incentive the more, so one night I put my- 
self on the railway for the celebrated place of Eastern 
trade. 

The Consul had, moreover, given me this opinion : 
" If you have no particular object of inquiry to make 
at Nijni — one which will occupy some days ; if you 
are only going there to see the fair, for a cursory 



JOUKNEY BY EAILWAY. 247 

visit, the best plan is to start from here by the night 
train, which is the best — all the merchants go by it — 
you will be at Nijni in the morning. Pass the day 
there, and return by the night train. You will save 
yourself much discomfort and a bad bed by this ar- 
rangement." 

At ten o'clock one night I started for Nijni. No- 
thing could be better than the carriage, fitted up as 
the Russian carriages are with arm-chairs arranged 
singly or in pairs about its long extent. There were 
seventeen armchairs. The entrances are at the two 
extremities of the long car, which is much warmer by 
this arrangement. There is an anteroom, too, at each 
end, which adds to the warmth, a necessary thing in 
the winters of that severe climate. The country ap- 
peared to be of the same character as that round Mos- 
cow, waving, and with woods scattered all over it. The 
only objectionable circumstance of the journey was that 
some of my companions — the car was about half full 
— smoked at intervals all through the night. A 
gentleman and lady occupied chairs at my end, and 
these two lit their cigars (the lady a cigarette, of 
course) at once. After smoking one or two each ? 
they arranged themselves with pillows for the nighty 
and went to sleep. 



248 SMOKING IN THE TRAIN. 

I have no very great objection to a cigar in a rail- 
way carriage, though not now a smoker myself ; but 
still there is a limitation to this negative liking. At 
about one in the morning the lady — she was a small 
person of the Sclave type of prettiness, white skin, 
dark sleepy eyes, rather full lips, high cheek bones, 
and a soft undulating figure — she awoke, and rousing 
herself from a combination of white pillow and red. 
woollen shawl and coquettish red and black close- 
fitting cap and a framework to her face of white 
cambric, to my surprise she applied to her gentleman 
for a cigarette. He was a German, to judge by his 
looks, young and with a well-bred manner. They 
had a cigar in company, and then slept again. At 
dawn the same thing happened. After an early cup 
of tea at a station they smoked steadily all the way to 
Nijni, which we reached at ten. I thought this pretty 
fair work for a young lady. 

As a specimen of the passion for tea in Russia, one of 
my fellow-travellers performed a considerable feat in 
the consumption of this article. Inside each window of 
the railway carriage there is a small arrangement which 
is very convenient. This is a flap of wood in the form 
of a half circle which plays on hinges. When unused and 
let down it lies flat against the side of the carriage, and 



TEA-DRINKING. \ 249 

when wanted it is raised and forms a small table. On 
this ladies place their work, or a book. My opposite 
neighbour, a middle-aged gentleman, at one station 
ordered tea. This was put in through the window, 
a small tray with cup and saucer, a small porcelain tea- 
pot filled with odoriferous tea, and a large one hold- 
ing, perhaps, three pints of boiling water. This was 
placed on the small table between him and me, with 
many expressions of courtesy on his part and wishes 
that I might not be inconvenienced thereby. u Of course 
I was not incommoded." The train started and my 
neighbour began his tea. He soon emptied the teapot, 
and then he replenished it from the large pot of water, 
for hardly did he finish off one cup before he poured 
out another. I never saw a man so happy and so 
jealous of his tea. No old cottager in the dear old- 
country parish of my boyhood — and there were some 
very severe performers in that line in our parish — and 
no middle-aged or youthful dame ravenous for her tea 
at five in the afternoon — that new and beautiful insti- 
tution of the present age — ever was more intent on 
her cup as the dark stained liquid rose higher and 
higher in the small pink and green porcelain bowl, or 
more greedy of every drop of it, than was my neigh- 
bour as he watched the flow of the perfumed stream 



250 ARRIVAL AT NIJNI. 

from the small spout. And then how he held back 
his head and drained it to the dregs ! By degrees the 
large pot naturally became light, the teapot did the 
same, and as we drew up to another station, so vigor- 
ously had the gentleman applied himself to his work, 
that nothing remained but emptiness ; and my neigh- 
bour dismissed the whole little apparatus through the 
window, and then betook himself to his slumbers with 
something like four pints of tea under his waistcoat. 

We reached Nijni at ten on the following morning. 
There I found a considerable station supplied with all 
requisites either for breakfast or dinner. Having dis- 
cussed the former I put myself into the hands of a 
droschky driver with the address of the English mer- 
chant. "Mr. P — " said he, as I named the gentleman 
in question; "I know him, he lives in the Chinese 
Row." So we started for the Chinese Row. 

It had been rainy weather for the last few days, so 
we drove through much mud and by various streets of 
water to the Chinese Row. Nijni under the circum- 
stances was not prepossessing. From meagre accounts 
I had imagined the fair at Nijni to be in a degree like 
other fairs ; a succession of streets of booths and cover- 
ed arcades extending over a large space of ground at 
the edge of the town. But I found none of these 



THE TWO TOWNS. 251 

things. There is a small town of Nijni lying along the 
south bank of the Volga, partly along the level shore 
and partly climbing up the steep bank or hill be- 
yond it, and surrounded by the Castle, Citadel, and 
Cathedral, and other large buildings. Opposite this, 
across the river, is another town, the Nijni of the 
fair. The first is an ordinary old Russian town of per- 
manent brick and stone habitations. The second is a 
place consisting of bazaars and endless rows of low 
wooden one-storey buildings of all sorts and kinds of 
architecture, Muscovite, Armenian, Turkish, Chinese, 
Tartar, occupied for the time of the fair, and for that 
only, by the people of the different countries, each 
bazaar by its own people. By these means whatever 
kind of merchandise a merchant may want, he knows 
exactly where to go in search of it. This town of 
bazaars is only alive during the period of the fair, about 
two months, when it is filled to overflowing with a 
mass of people from the four quarters of the earth, 
varying from three to four hundred thousand persons. 
The fair over, the whole of them depart ; the rows 
are locked up, the mosque and church are closed, the 
houses are swept clear of all furniture, bare walls alone 
remain, the folks of Nijni go back over the river, and 
the place is dead and shut up. Then it is a place of 



252 



THE CHINESE ROW. 



silence and loneliness for nine or ten months, during 
the long winter and spring, until the summer and the 
fair arriving together wake it again into a temporary 
and spasmodic life. 

Mr. P , the English merchant from Moscow, had 

his temporary residence in the Chinese Row. These 
rows are wide open streets, bordered by low houses, 
with a covered area running along the whole length 
of the street on either side. By this arrangement 
people walk about the place under shelter from sun 
or rain, by no means a superfluous protection, con- 
sidering that we were then under the malign in- 
fluence of much rain and high winds. This row of 
houses was built in a Chinese style, with deep pro- 
jecting roofs, and the corners of these turned up and 
ornamented each with a yellow bell — small, low, sub- 
stantial houses. 

Entering a kind of warehouse where much active 
packing of goods was going on, I was directed to a 
flight of newly-built wooden stairs in a corner, and on 
mounting these to an upper open warehouse, I was 
directed to a door. Within this were two small rooms 

or closets, the sanctum and dwelling of Mr. P , 

the rich merchant, during the fair. This is the custom 
of the place. A merchant rents for the two months 



MR. P 'S APARTMENT. 253 

one of these houses, bare walls below and bare rooms 
above. Here he comes en garcon, brings with him a 
few articles of furniture, fits up his two closets for the 
nonce, transacts his business, sleeps in this domicile, 
and, as he is allowed to light no fire in these wooden 
buildings, lives at some eating-house with the mer- 
chant world. It is a life thoroughly commercial, un- 
domestic, and republican. 

Nothing could be neater or fresher than the small 

apartment of Mr. P , with its sofa, its tables, its 

easy-chairs, and its inner dormitory belongings. All 

these had come down from Moscow. Mr. P at 

once in the most obliging manner placed himself and 
his time at my disposal. He had arrived but the day 
before at Nijni, and this first day he would devote to 
me and idleness. What could be more gracefully 
polite ? First he led me through some of the rows, 
of the Armenians, of Persians, and the men of the 
Caucasus. Nothing could be neater or more 
orderly. A covered way or verandah ran along the 
whole side of the row or street, and in their several 
door- ways, in twos and threes, sat or lounged the men 
from the distant East, men with the sharp pale face 
of the Armenian, the dark rich complexion of the 
Persian, the bronzed and high features of the Cau- 



254 COSSACKS. 

casian, the two former in their long blue cloth robes, 
and the latter always in grey. All these arcades were 
neatly paved with brick. Street after street we passed 
in this way, each arcade alive with moving figures of 
men and women, and each row showing us fresh cos- 
tumes and different goods. Nothing could be more 
picturesque or more neatly arranged, save and except 
that the roadway of forty or fifty feet breadth was but 
a muddy track from one line of arcades across to the 
other. Russia has no care for roads, even up to the 
gates of Moscow ; how then should she care for them 
at a temporary place like the fair of Nijni? Droschkies 
and carriages, telegas and tarantasses, drove along 
these tracks, getting through the soft deep soil as well 
as they could. Occasionally a small party of Cossacks, 
five or six, in loose order, in their long grey coats 
and peaked caps, and mounted aloft on their high 
saddles far above their low wiry horses, went by. 
Their enormously long lances, with bare steel polished 
pike-heads, had a most truculent and business-like 
look. They were small men, fair, and with sharp 
features. These were the police of the fair. As I 
looked at them, the first I had seen, there rose up be- 
fore the mind's eye scenes in which these little men 
had played a fierce and unrelenting part with that fatal 



FLOATING BRIDGE. 255 

lance — scenes in which the unhappy French, on their 
retreat from Moscow, had learned to look on them as 
wolves of the forest, as men who gave no quarter to 
their crippled foe — and then other scenes, in which 
Gogol paints them, in " Tarass Boulba," coming up 
from their Vetch on the Dnieper in thousands, spread- 
ing as a destroying spirit of evil over the land, and 
burning and devastating village and farm as they 
advanced, leaving but a desert behind them. Now 
these wolves of the forest were subdued, and trained 
to act as police at a fair. 

We got into a droschky and crossed the river by 
a wooden floating bridge, supported on barges moored 
in the stream. What a grand stream it is! The 
bridge seemed to be nearly half a mile in length, and 
the breadth was immense to allow of the unceasing 
and multitudinous traffic on it. For full half-way 
across there appeared to be endless establishments on 
spacious floating houses on the below bridge side, 
stretching away far down the stream. Many of these 
were the tenements of the fishmongers, who kept in 
deep capacious wells the royal sturgeon and the lus- 
cious sterlet, princes among fish, for the luxurious 
gourmands among the merchants at the fair. 

Driving over the bridge, my companion and I found 



256 POSITION OF NIJNI. 

ourselves in an ordinary, ill-paved, dirty town. We 
soon left the street and mounted the hill, a long steep 
winding road, to the citadel, and passing this came 
out on a plateau commanding a noble bit of scenery. 
The hill sloped down rapidly with an unbroken in- 
cline to the river. The position is singularly fine, 
for the town stands at the extremity of a river-en- 
circled tongue or tract of lofty table-land coming up 
from the south ; and the citadel on the summit looks 
over a wide extent of lower country waving or level 
to the north and east and west beyond the stream. 
From the plateau the course of the Volga and its 
junction with the Ocka, and all the far champaign 
dotted with villages and churches, lay beneath the 
eye. The plateau was prettily laid out with shaded 
walks and bosquets, and there were pavilions and 
restaurants with creature comforts for the practical 
man. 

Lying off the town both above and below the 
bridge were a countless number of vessels of all 
kinds, from the common boat of the native and the 
huge unwieldy craft laden high with hay and wood, 
the Russian colours at the mast-head, to the various 
barges of primitive construction of the dwellers on 
the banks who had sent their goods on board to the 



SACRED BELL OF NIJNI. 257 

fair, and the neat long flat-sided screw steamers of 
the many steamboat companies which trade between 
Nijni and Astracan, the union jack flying at the 
stern. Here in this far country how companionable 
and hearty looked the universal flag ! Across the 
bridge and on the tongue of land which is formed by 
the junction of the Ocka and the Volga, was the fair, 
its long low lines of bazaars extending far and wide 
over the intervening space. 

In the earlier times of Russia, in the fourteenth cen- * 
tury, Nijni was the capital of a section of the country, 
and its fine position on a lofty hill over the Volga 
must have given it a considerable strength and influ- 
ence. Situated at the junction of two large rivers it 
ruled over the people on their banks for a wide dis- 
tance, and its sovereign held in his hands the traffic 
of the mighty stream. 

As we stood there enjoying the fine scenery, the bells 
from the church tower in the citadel, near the wall of 
which we were standing, rang out their musical peal. 

" There is a curious story connected with that 
church," said my companion. " There is one bell 
in the tower which is the sacred bell of Nijni. It 
happened one day that I came up here with two 
English gentlemen to see the citadel. After we had 

s 



258 CURIOUS STORY. 

seen the other buildings we went into the church and 
up into the bell-tower. Now here was an ancient 
wooden clock of curious construction, and one of the 
gentlemen wishing to examine the works the keeper 
of the tower set off down the turret to get the key of 
the clock. While he was gone one of the gentlemen 
began to move the clapper of the big bell — the sacred 
bell, saying, 1 I should like to hear the tone of the 
Nijni bell.' By dint of swinging the great clapper at 
^Jast he struck the side with it, and one immense deep 

clang boomed out. Mr. P said he had not been 

attending to what his friends were doing, but hearing 
the stroke he dashed at the rope just in time to pre- 
vent the counter swing of the clapper. But the mis- 
chief was done. In a minute the tower-keeper rushed 
up in haste and exclaimed, ' Who rung the bell ?' 

Mr. P told, him how it had happened. ' It is a 

misfortune,' said the man — 1 a great misfortune.' 
Then suddenly the papa appeared breathless in the 
belfry, all pale and alarmed — ' Who rung the bell ? — 

who dared to ring it ?' Mr. P explained how it 

had occurred. £ Get down quickly,' he exclaimed, 
1 all of you, as fast as you can. It is a great crime 
you have committed— the people will be here in a 
few minutes, and if they find you here you will be in 



FORTUNATE ESCAPE. 259 

danger of your lives — quick ! quick 1' As they ran 
down he explained, 'That bell is never rung — 
never, except to warn the town that the church is on 
fire, or that help is wanted in the citadel for some- 
thing political or serious.' So down they hurried, 
found the carriage at the door and jumped in. At 
first there was no one in sight, and they drove down 
the hill rapidly; but presently they saw people in 
twos and threes hurrying up ; and then they went 
slowly to avoid suspicion. As they met the people 
they were all in a high state of excitement. ■ What 
has happened?' they demanded — 'Who rung the 

bell ?' Mr. P and his companions pretended they 

had not heard the bell. c What bell ?' they asked, and 
the people hurried on. As they descended they met 
crowds, all in a state of agitation, running, talking, 
men and women, all highly excited, all hastening up 

the hill. Very lucky," said Mr. P , " that we got 

away in time ; and I was uncommonly glad when we 
were in the town and could rattle along without 
creating suspicion. We were soon over the bridge 
and out of harm's way ; but I do believe if they had 
caught us and known we had rung the bell, they 
would have done us a mischief for daring to touch 
their holy bell. These people are made fanatic in 

s2 



260 EUSSIAN FANATICISM. 

their religion, and when they are roused are blind in 
their rage." 

This accounts, methought, for the Iberian Mother 
getting such a lot of money at the Iversky Gate in 
Moscow, and also for the unsparing demand for ban- 
ishment to Siberia of the princess who bit the diamond 
out of her shoe. No wonder that the Emperor thinks 
it good policy to fall in with this fanaticism and direct 
it. This is the force that backs him in his treatment 
of the Sultan — in his protection of the Christians in 
the East. 

On our return to the fair Mr. P proposed that 

we and a young friend, a Russian of good family, who 
was learning his business as a merchant under him, 
should go and dine at the grand restaurant of the 

place. So we went, Mr. P , in the spirit of the 

millionnaire Russian merchant, claiming to be our 
host. Driving through much mud we reached 
a block of low long buildings beyond the precincts of 
the bazaars. At the door of one of these were num- 
bers of well-dressed men, standing about, or going in 
and out in groups, as at the entrance of one of our 
Pall Mall Clubs in June about dinner time. It was 
four o'clock, the fashionable hour of the fair. The 
greetings of Mr. P and his friends were innumer- 



THE GRAND RESTAURANT. 261 

able, and all so hearty and cordial ; such clappings on 
the shoulder, such holdings of hands, such laughing 
nods and waving of arms. 

"You here, P ," says one; "when did you 

come down?" " Oh ! only yesterday." "That's right, 
— here we all are — so jolly !" " What, P !" ex- 
claimed another, " all right — delighted. You are com- 
ing to dinner ?" " B gives a great spread," says a 

third • " you are one of us?" " No," says Mr. P , 

" I can't to-day — friends." 

So we entered, I feeling all the time that I was in 

the way of Mr. P 's enjoying a treat with his jovial 

friends from Moscow. In the corridor and on the 
staircase was an endless stream of gentlemen hurrying 
in various directions, all talking, all in high spirits. No 
wonder: they were all en garqon at the fair — their wives 
were left at Moscow, and it was dinner time, — what a 
combination ! 

We struggled upstairs, and entered a long room, 
where were small tables laid for dinner in rows, most 
of them already occupied by parties of gentlemen, threes 

and fours, and all deep in dinner. Mr. P went 

off to see the master of the house, and to order a par- 
ticular and recherche' dinner. In about twenty min- 
utes he returned. 



262 EN GARCON AT THE FAIR. 

" All," said he, as lie sank into his chair, " I have 
done a foolish thing — I have spoilt my dinner." 

" What has happened?" said I. 

" Why, there is B giving a great spread down- 
stairs in the long room — Tyrolean singers and all the 
rest of it. I just looked in — when he saw me and 
shouted out my name and made me come in — wanted 

me to dine — old B- jovial as ever. When I said 

I had friends to dine and couldn't come, he exclaimed, 
4 Friends — bring them — bring them all — we've not 
half done. We'll have the dinner all on the table 

again. Here — waiter — here's Mr. P and his friends 

coming to dine — have a fresh dinner directly.' How- 
ever, I thought you would not like such an uproarious 
affair, and so I declined and got away ; but not with- 
out drinking a whole tumbler of champagne, which 
B insisted on my taking— and now this con- 
founded champagne has quite spoiled my appetite." 

I felt quite a regret that Mr. P should have 

lost all this joviality, and spoilt his dinner too, on my 
account. 

" No, no, I want to show you one or two things in 
the fair, and we should never have got away from the 
party downstairs; and besides, we are quieter here ; 
and here comes the sterlet soup." 



RUSSIAN RECHERCHE DINNER. 263 

So by the aid of various little Russian whets, such 
as anchovies and lemon, and pickles, and so on, we 
spurred up our appetites, and Mr. P— — even re- 
covered his under this little discipline, and we all did 
justice to a Russian recherche dinner. The sterlet 
soup was admirable — sterlet, that diamond of the 
Volga, cynosure of gourmand eyes — declared to be 
only eaten in its highest flavour and condition on the 
banks of its native water. Also there was a game bird 
something resembling a partridge in flavour. Various 
were the dishes, each creditable to Russia, but not re- 
markable as casting into shade either Felippe, or 
Francatelli, or the redoubted u Freres," and of course 
champagne and hock played their fair part. From a 
distance at intervals came up to us the notes of the Ty- 
rolean singers, and the shouts of the guests of " that 
jolly old B going it." 

The dinner over, we sallied forth. In the middle 
of dinner a portly man, his face beaming with good- 
humour, had come up to inquire of our well-doing. 
This was the host, from Moscow for the nonce, a 
large genial man. Each year he made a little for- 
tune at Mjni. Now he was told that I wished to see 
where he kept his sturgeon and sterlet in the river. 
These were kept under lock and key out on the 



264 



FISH- WELLS. 



bridge. Presently he returned with the keys and 
directions, and confided the guardians of his treasures 

to Mr. P with many injunctions ; and so we 

drove off to the great bridge. Arrived at about a 
third of the way over, we got down from our 
droschky, and found stairs leading out to what was a 
floating town. On what a scale it all was ! Here 
were wooden erections, so extensive and so substan- 
tial, one might suppose they had been there for a 
century, and were intended to last another century 
or two — living rooms and covered decks, passages 
and galleries, small wells for delicate fish, and large 
wells for the royal sturgeon and princely sterlet. In 
various parts of the decks were the sacred cavities, 
the wells, fastened with massive iron locks and bars. 
One of the keys of the Moscow landlord opened a 
monster padlock, and a wide dark pool yawned be- 
neath the spreading roof-like cover. A man with 
bare legs and short white linen brogues, with red 
beard and bare neck, came with a net six feet square, 
in a frame with a long handle, and plunged this into 
the pool. Then there was a mighty turmoil below of 
huge monsters rushing about in the wide space, the 
water surging up all round, and now a great head 
half appearing above it, and now a tail fin, the splen- 



STERLET AND STURGEON. 265 

did fisli lashing in its descent the boiling water. At 
last the skilful workman secured one in a corner and 
bore him to the surface — a hundred pounder — a stur- 
geon — a noble fellow. 

" That's not one of the largest," said the man, 
quietly ; and then he dipped the net, turned it 
over with a twist of his wrist, released the fish, 
and struck out for another. Then began again the 
turmoil amid the seething water. " That's a good 
one," he exclaimed, as one bigger than the last rose to 
the surface, and after a savage rush and struggle was 
captured in the bellying net. " That's about a hun- 
dred and twenty," said the man, " and in good season 
too." 

What a splendid fellow he was ! — bright and shin- 
ing, and of beautiful proportions. What play that fish 
would give one on a good line down stream, me- 
thought ! It would be an hour or two's work to land 
him, and here he comes up in his prison in two turns 
of the wrist. He seemed all too grand for his narrow 
dungeon. Then we had another well opened, and 
the delight of gourmands, the sterlet, was fished up 
in the same way. Of all sizes these were, from five 

and ten pounds up to fifty. Mr. P told us a 

story of a fine sturgeon caught in the Volga some few 



266 LOW SUBURBS OF THE FAIR. 

years back, on the occasion of the visit of the Crown 
Prince to Nijni, and presented to him. The Prince 
requested that he might not be killed, but turned 
back into the river. This was done, a gold ring with 
an inscription being run through his gill. Three or 
four years afterwards a peasant caught the fish with 
the ring in his gill, and the Governor of Nijni, hearing 
of the capture, sent off to save the fish's life. " The 
Prince had spared his life — no one must kill him." 
So the Governor decided, and he gave the peasant 
five hundred roubles for it, added a second ring with 
a fresh inscription in the gill of the fish, and gave him 
his liberty. 

" That fish," said Mr. P , " has a fair chance of 

dying in his bed of old age, a rare case for a sturgeon 
within reach of Nijni." 

We drove from thence across the point of land 
through endless rows of bazaars, till we got beyond 
the regular buildings. Here were the low suburbs of 
the fair. Rude cottages, large halls for dancing of 
the roughest materials and spreading dimensions, so- 
litary sheds, straggling houses, and tumble-down vodka 
shops, were scattered irregularly on both sides of the 
broad, deep, muddy track. We struggled on, for the 
great tea-stores were in front. At last the roadway 



TEA-STORES. 267 

became so bad, with great holes and heaps of broken 
brick, long pieces of timber lying about pell-mell, 
compelling perpetual windings in and out and round 
about, and much steering between pools and preci- 
pices, with an occasional forced climb over a rugged 
Scylla and a dip down into a quagmiry Charybdis, 
that we were compelled to come to a halt. The 
track was ceasing to be anything but a general slough 
of despond. However, there were the tea-stores in 
our front. In long lines and high, fifty yards in length 
and twenty feet in height, were piles of tea-chests. 
For the most part these were covered with mattings 
or sailcloths to keep the rain from them, but some 
were exposed at the sides, and here we could see the 
usual yellow tea-chest, about two feet square, handy 
for moving, so well known in our London shops, 
sealed with the large black Chinese characters and 
adorned with the familiar persons of our Celestial 
friends. There must have been acres of ground 
covered with these piles of chests ; but as all Russia 
drinks tea morning, noon, and night, the supply was 
probably only a portion of what is required. 

But it was getting dark, so we escaped from the 
quagmire as well as we could, and entering the 
fair again, were set down at the doorway of the 



268 THE FAIR. 

building where the Governor resides — the centre of 
the place, and the only considerable and lofty build- 
ing in it. Below were bazaars and coffee-houses, and 
above were the dwelling-house and offices of the 
Governor. This was all lit up, and here along the 
many and crossing and winding passages of the bazaar, 
the shops displaying all their gayest colours and most 
attractive articles, were crowds of people of all coun- 
tries, lounging away the evening in the essential en- 
joyments of shopping or doing nothing. Here in the 
several shops were Armenians, Persians, Turks, men 
from Bokhara, Tahtars, and Cossacks. A young lad 
in white and a boy in scarlet trowsers, their whole 
dress gorgeous with gold lace and glittering arms — 
sons of some chief of the Caucasus — were bargaining 
for a richly-finished and ornamented revolver. Poor 
young fellows, methought, there is not much for you 
to do with a revolver now. You can put it in your 
gorgeous girdle as an ornament for display, but when 
you get home to your mountains you must not fire it 
at any one without permission from some gentleman 
in a plain green coat in your neighbourhood. 

My two companions bargained with some Persians 
for some silk for their wives at Moscow. How they 
fought over it ! Mr. P named his price and steadily 



RETURN TO MOSCOW. 269 

stuck to it ; while the Persians tried every calculation 
and every argument to shew that they must lose 
money greatly at that price. But the Moscow mer- 
chant knew better than that. How quiet and dogged 
the Englishman was, and how the eyes of the Persians 
gleamed and shot out sparks of fire with the earnest- 
ness of the combat ! But their manner never lost the 
smooth polish of supple well-bred men in spite of all 
their eagerness. Of course the end of the fight was that 
the silks were folded beautifully by the Persians, and 
were borne off by the servant of the Briton. The 
Bokhara men had brought stones, brown and white, 
from the Bokhara mountains, and bracelets of one of 
these stones, serdalik — the penultimate syllable bear- 
ing the long accent — changed hands, as had done the 
silks. 

There were men, too, from Tashkend selling smart 
kerchiefs which would make the eyes of our young 
ladies dance with their brilliant colouring. 

But the time was arriving for the train back to Mos- 
cow ; so turning our backs on the men of Bokhara 
and Tashkend, on the Persians and the boy chieftain 
from the Caucasus, we drove to the station, and after 

many shakings of the hand of Mr. P and hearty 

thanks, I started again for Moscow. 



270 A COMPANION ON THE JOUENEY. 

But I did not travel alone. Besides various persons 
in my carriage there was a lady, my opposite neigh- 
bour, who was committed to my care for the journey. 
She was the wife of the young Russian, the student in 

commercial matters under Mr. P . Both the lady 

and her husband were of high Russian family, but in 
the transition state of things in that country young 
members of old families are casting about for a more 
active and useful existence than the old and idle one 
of the nobles of the past ; and so this young gentle- 
man was ardent in the pursuit of commercial know- 
ledge. He was tall and handsome, with well-bred 
manners ; and his young wife was a beautiful person, 
tall and with delicate features, and a countenance ex- 
pressive of goodness and amiability. She had gone 
down for a day to see her husband at Nijni, and as 
even loving young wives cannot stay there she was 
on her way home again to Moscow. She was pale, 
thoroughly Russian, with no Tahtar blood in her 
veins, and she did not smoke. When I parted from 
her on the following morning at Moscow, and saw her 
into the hands of her liveried * servants and step into 
her carriage, I thought I had rarely seen or spoken 
to a more unaffected or more charming person. 

A day or two afterwards, when relating to our Con- 



THE TRADE OF NIJNI. 271 

sul, Mr. R , my visit to Nijni, and all the many 

acts of kindness and hospitality on the part of his 
friend Mr. P , not the least of which was the sacri- 
fice of his own time, he said, 

u How glad I am you have seen Nijni as it is, in 
something of its old splendour, for this will not last 
very much longer. It was a very convenient position, 
central and come-at-able, on the two rivers, for trade 
between east and west under the old tedious modes 
of communication. People arrived there by water, and 
this was a matter of great moment, for as there was no 
kind of convenience in the way of transport for the 
mass of Eastern goods in this direction, Nijni was a good 
meeting-place. But now all this is changmg. New con- 
ditions of transport are upsetting all the old arrange- 
ments. Steam and railway are revolutionising this 
trade. Merchants of Moscow are beginning to ask 
why should they go to the goods at Nijni, when 
the goods can come on as well to Moscow by 
rail? Even now some merchants refuse to go, and 
they send down orders to agents. The numbers of 
the people at the fair are diminishing already, and 
there are said to be three hundred thousand now in- 
stead of four and even five hundred thousand a few 
years back. The trade, too, is taking advantage of 



272 DECLINE OF NIJNI FAIR. 

other channels, so that in the course of a few more 
years — ten or twenty — the Nijni fair will dwindle, and 
by degrees become a thing of the past, except for the 
commoner and coarser goods." 

As the Egyptian boat song has it, " Everything 
passes but God." Even the Nijni fair. 



273 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Profligacy of Russian Nobles —Extenuating Circumstances — Benevolence 
of the Higher Orders — The Galitzin and Foundling Hospitals — Visit 
to Hospital founded by the Sheremaytieff Family — The Building, 
Apartments, and Gardens — Noble Endowment — The Dining Hall — 
Inmates — The Sick, Maimed, and Blind — Friendless Old Men — The 
Women's Apartments — Anecdotes and Portraits — Apartments for 
the Sick — General Hospital — The Governor's Room — Distribution 
of Money to Pensioners — Conversation with the Governor — Sum 
annually expended by the Hospital — Societe Fraternelle — Noble Side 
of the Russian Character. 

A LTHOUGH there is much said in Russia in blame 
of the class of noble their extravagances, their 
gambling, their profligacy, their bad example as land- 
lords and as rulers over their serfs, yet there is a re- 
verse side to this picture. I heard it even claimed by 
some Russians at a dinner-table that in profligacy some 
members of this class could compare with advantage 
— an evil advantage — with those of any other country. 
One or two of the company stood up manfully for the 
French nation as possessing those who would bear 

T 



274 PROFLIGACY OF RUSSIAN NOBLES. 

away the bell in a contest of profligacy ; but as the 
argument proceeded opinions wavered, and in the end 
the dark prize was awarded to Russia. In such a 
question it is always fair to admit circumstances — ex- 
tenuating circumstances. In the present case it must 
be borne in mind that in the Russian blood there is 
an admixture of the utterly lawless Tahtar, reckless of 
any result but the gratification of his own passions, 
inheritor of violence and of absence of all scruple. 
Moreover, the position of the noble was exceptional ; 
for not only was he lord of wide domains and almost 
unlimited wealth, but he was a ruler of serfs — of 
slaves — with a power tantamount to a power of life 
and death, a power over their property, a power over 
their persons ; and there was no law to restrain him 
but one he virtually administered himself, and could 
evade at pleasure. What could possibly be expected 
from such a combination of blood and position ? 
What but the exercise of every profligacy varnished 
over with the glitter of civilization. The French 
nation has no ingredients of this kind. Happily for 
them circumstances are against them in the contest 
of evil. But as there are in the world only a 
limited number of very great criminals, so in Russia 
we must consider that there were many degrees of 



HOSPITALS FOUNDED BY NOBLE FAMILIES. 275 

social criminality in the reckless upper class, and that 
the principal offenders were but few. 

But there is a reverse of the picture. In no country 
are there evidences of a higher and purer spirit of 
benevolence and charity than among those very nobles. 
In and around Moscow there are many of the most 
splendid institutions, founded by men of family and 
flourishing to this hour, that can be found in any 
capital of Europe. Among these may be cited the 
Galitzin Hospital on the banks of the Moskwa on the 
road to the Sparrow Hills, founded and endowed 
by a Prince Galitzin; the Foundling, endowed by 
Prince DemidofF ; and others of a similar character. 

Among these was named to me one day by the 

Count L the hospital founded by the Sheremay- 

tieff family. 

" If you will call on the principal medical man, who 
lives in the garden, and use my name," said he, 
" Dr. C will show you over everything willingly." 

Accordingly I presented myself one day at the 
doctor's door. He received me cordially, speaking 
the French language with ease and fluency ; and this 
day being a committee day, and he occupied with busi- 
ness, he engaged me to call on him on the morning 
following. 

t 2 



276 THE SHEREMAYTIEFF HOSPITAL. 

"Are you a doctor?" said he, as we parted. 

" Not at all," said I, " only a traveller, interested 
in the details of a noble charity." 

" I think it will please you — you shall see every- 
thing," said he. 

At the hour named on the subsequent day I found 
Dr. C ready and smiling. 

I will first give a short description of the building 
and circumstances of this remarkable institution before 
we enter it. The situation is good. It stands on one 
of the high grounds of Moscow, on the north side of 
the great Boulevard which runs in a circle through 
the centre of the city. As it stands a little back from 
the Boulevard, there is a wide space of perhaps forty 
yards breadth in front of it to the south and west ; 
and as on this there is one of the city fountains 
always playing, and beyond it are the usual low cot- 
tages with their gardens, while behind it to the north 
are extensive gardens belonging to the Hospice, no- 
thing can well be more airy or sunny than the situa- 
tion. The building is of course low, only one storey 
in height, and is in the form of a half moon, a deeply 
embayed crescent. The cord of the arc is about two 
hundred yards in length, and consists of an open iron 
railing with gilded spear points, and within this a 



PKINCELY DONATION. 277 

grass plot and garden fill the whole space. Frequent 
staircases descend from the first floor to the basement, 
and many doors issue on this sunny and spacious 
garden. One half of the buildings of this immense 
half circle are occupied by the apartments of those 
inmates of the Hospice who are in health, and the 
other half is set apart for the sick, for baths, for offi- 
ces, for committee rooms, for officer s apartments, and 
all the general purposes of the establishment. In 
the centre of the half moon rises the Church, plain in 
exterior, neat and not gaudy within. 

In this place are maintained by funds left by the 
Prince SheremaytiefF — one hundred old men and one 
hundred old women. One of the family Sheremay- 
tiefF — one of the highest in the Empire — Prince Mi- 
chael, some years ago built this Hospice and endowed 
it with a landed estate producing fifty thousand rou- 
bles a year, with villages on it and eight thousand 
serfs. These estates now, under the altered circum- 
stances of the country, produce forty- three thousand 
roubles, equal to about six thousand pounds of our 
money. This is a princely donation to the impover- 
ished and the unfortunate and the sick of one's fellow 
countrymen. Besides this, there is a sum of money 
left in Russian funds the interest of which is ten thou- 



278 THE DINING HALL. 

sand roubles a year. Thus, in all, this nobleman has 
endowed his Hospice with a fortune of fifty-three thou- 
sand roubles per annum. This and other similar en- 
dowments are grand acts worthy of all honour, and 
should redeem in the eyes of those sitting in judgment 
on Russia many faults and shortcomings. A class which 
could produce many men of this stamp could not be 
altogether bad. 

On entering the building we were joined by the 
manager of the Hospice, a Russian gentleman. He 
first led us into the dining hall. This was a fine room, 
eighty feet long by thirty in breadth, and lofty. It ter- 
minated the edifice at one end of the half moon, the 
length of it being the depth of the building, eighty 
feet, while its height was that of the ground floor and 
the storey above it. A fine full length portrait of the 
prince, the founder, was at one end of this hall, which 
was simply but well furnished. In this all the inmates 
have their meals, i.e., those who are strong enough to 
walk there. Many are too old and weak for this, and 
these have their meals taken to them in their rooms 
by servants of the establishment; Of these servants 
there are one hundred and two. 

We were then conducted into the rooms of the 
men, which are on the ground-floor. These were 



the men's rooms. 279 

large, lofty, and airy. Four or five beds were In one 
room, and six or seven in another — the arrangement 
being that the rooms were in pairs, one room in the 
front and one behind, and opening into each other 
by a wide archway in the centre. Those at the back, 
to the north, were always the largest, being in the 
long outer side of the half circle. The walls were of 
immense thickness, keeping the rooms cool in sum- 
mer and warm in winter. Against these walls were 
clothes presses, and chests of drawers, and washing 
places. Every man had his separate bed, all the 
component parts of it being of the best, clean thick 
soft beds, fit for anyone. At each bed head was a 
neat little low cupboard for the man's tea-things, 
books, or any small object of affection or fancy. All 
the men wore a large grey wrapping coat as a kind 
of uniform. In the first room was a man with a 
countenance and manners, when spoken to, above the 
common, and not above sixty years of age. The chief 
told me that this man was of French extraction, born 
in Russia. He had been a priest of the Greek Church, 
but having become unable from illness to do any ser- 
vice in the church he had fallen into utter destitution. 
Sometimes this would happen even to a native priest, 
and this man being a foreigner he had no friends, and 



280 INMATES OF THE HOSPICE. 

being married he could not enter any convent. The 
parish priests marry, but the monks do not. This 
man's wife was in the Hospice too, but as a servant. 
I asked him about his friends in France, and he said 
he had none. Poor fellow ! — not a friend in the 
world but these kind foreigners. In another room 
was a thin old man, who had been a schoolmaster 
with a good middle-class school once. His health 
had given way, his school fell off, his friends could 
not keep him, and so he came into the Hospice. 
What a life of disappointment, and care, and hard strug- 
gle with circumstances, was summed up in those few 
words ! One soldierly man in uniform spoke French 
well. He had attained the rank of major, but ill- 
health had driven him out of the service ; his family 
were poor, and he could turn his hand to nothing. I 
asked him if he had been in the Crimea. 

No, he said, but many of his friends had, and some 
had been there in the Hospice, but they were all dead. 

" All dead !" said I — " it is not many years ago." 

" They had all suffered much," said the doctor ; 
" there were five of them — all •had been wounded, 
and were in weak condition, and they soon died. 
The men," he continued, " die much faster than the 
women. The women seem to make themselves more 



THE OLD SOLDIER. 281 

at home here with their needle-work, and their talk, 
and their little ways, and they live much longer ; but 
the men are without any occupation, and they cannot 
make a life out of nothing as the women do, and so 
they pine and die soon. Two or three men, on an 
average, die every week, and sometimes four or five, 
but there are some weeks when we do not lose one 
woman." 

As we turned away, and the soldier sat down — for 
each stood up as he was addressed, if he could, which 
all could not — and then crawled on to his bed, the 
manager whispered to me — 

"He is going ; in a day or two he will be removed 
into another room, and then he will go into the sick 
ward, and will be dead in a month, perhaps. They 
soon go when they once give way. They have wine 
and everything they can want or require, but they 
have no stamina and soon go." 

In one room the men were nearly all blind. There 
appeared to be a great consideration for the sick fan- 
cies of these old men. Some of them were gentle- 
men, and most of them of decent middle-class. They 
all had their tobacco, and in all their little cupboards 
were plates and tea-things, with something to eat or 
drink in them. 



282 ALONE IN THE WORLD. 

" Many of theni," said the manager, " cannot get 
into the big hall, or they have no appetite at the 
regular hours, and so we give them whatever they 
like here, and they manage to pick a bit here and 
there, but they don't eat much." 

What struck me as rather odd was that all the 
men who were ill were at once transferred from the 
sunny front rooms to the back north ones. I sug- 
gested that this was likely to tell on them, the room 
being more dull and the air less healthy; but the 
doctor only shrugged his shoulders — " it was the 
custom." 

There was an old soldier to each pair of rooms, and 
by applying to him any man could go out into the 
town for three or four hours ; and by application to 
the manager any man could go away for three or four 
days into the country and see his friends — " If he had 
any," observed the manager, in a whisper, " and 
many of them have none." No wonder, methought, 
these poor old men die off quickly; alone in the 
world, without a friend, or a hope, or a stimulus of 
life, what can a broken and forsaken man do, except 
what Hezekiah did — turn his face to the wall and 
die. In one room all the men were very aged and 
weak, seven or eight, most of them on their beds, or 



the women's apartments. 283 

in them. It appeared that there were different rooms 
for stages of debility. When a man became too 
weakly for a front room, he was moved into the back 
one. If this weakness went off, which it rarely did, 
he was restored to the front ; but if it increased he 
was moved on to another room — the one we were 
in — and he never went back again. What a death- 
knell, methought, was this move ! Poor fellows ! 
what a stillness there was in this room ! They were 
all slowly dying, not of old age, but of weariness of 
spirit and vacancy of purpose. Many of them had 
pulled the coverlet over their heads and faces, and the 
only thing you saw were the outlines of the forms be- 
neath their neat grey bedding, motionless. 

From thence we went upstairs, a broad flight, with 
easy shallow steps for the old women to get up and 
down. The apartments upstairs were arranged pre- 
cisely as those below, and the same order as regarded 
health and sickness was carried out. These rooms 
were more light and cheerful than those below, as is 
generally the case in similar circumstances, and so the 
ladies had the pleasantest part of the house, as is but 
right and becoming towards ladies. The only draw- 
back was the stairs, if any of them wished to go out, 
and this was a serious set-off in many cases ; but then 



284 CONDITION OF THE WOMEN. 

in this life there always will be some drawback to 
every advantageous position. The rooms were fur- 
nished in the same way as those of the men, except 
that in addition to the small cupboard to each bed, 
there was a handy little table for needlework, and 
the small inevitable littery odds and ends which seem 
everywhere to form an appendage to the female pre- 
sence — a kind of material atmosphere which enve- 
lops the woman and woman's arrangements, and in 
which she lives and moves and has her being. Here 
were sometimes two or three women round one table, 
with needle-work on part of it and tea-cups on 
another. There was no such small sociable world to 
be seen in the men's rooms below. In those rooms 
the man appeared to be a wild animal, solitary and 
uncouth ; while the woman was the sociable being — 
the one was dying for want of the outer life, the 
other made all her life within. No wonder the 
latter lived the longer lives. To each pair of rooms, 
as among the men, there was a superior to keep order 
and quiet. 

In the first room was a neat old person. The 
manager whispered to me that " she was a member 
of one of the highest families of Russia, born a prin- 
cess. She had married a medical man, in spite of the 



FEMALE INMATES. 285 

remonstrances of her relatives, and her family had 
given her up in consequence. Misfortunes came, the 
doctor died, she had no children, and was penniless. 
Though old she was capable of acting as the superior 
of the two rooms, and was installed in that office." 
Her face was pale and pleasing, her figure small and 
slight. The smile and the expression and the manner 
all told of a different class of person from those around 
her. In the plain dress of the Hospice she was not re- 
markable till you spoke to her, and then the pretty 
manner and quiet unembarrassed demeanour were very 
engaging. Poor lady ! she must have gone through 
much trouble to make her look so contented and 
cheerful in her present position. Anyhow it was a 
rest after a struggle of life in which all pride of blood 
and all romantic happiness and personal comfort had 
gone down in the fight and left her a mere waif and 
stray, a wreck on a barren shore. What a blessing 
to her this Hospice, with its healthy spacious rooms and 
good food, and, moreover, an office of confidence. In 
another room was a small delicate person. She too 
was of the better class, a niece of one of the present 
imperial ministers at St. Petersburg. When I ex- 
pressed my surprise at a gentleman so high allowing 
his niece to remain there, the manager said, "It was 



286 THE GERMAN WIDOW. 

droll ; but," he added, " he is not rich, and if he re- 
moved this person, and some day lost his appoint- 
ment, she would be as badly off as ever ; besides, she 
is well here, and she can go out and see her friends 
when she likes." She had never married. I thought 
she seemed to feel her situation, for she kept her seat 
at her little table with her back to us, and never 
looked up. One woman was a German from Saxony. 
We talked about her old home near Dresden, a village 
which I knew, and she was full of reminiscences of 
the place. She had married a Russian, a tradesman, 
and settled in Moscow. He had failed, and left her 
penniless. When I asked her why she had not gone 
back to Saxony after losing her husband, " Ah ! no," 
she said, tearfully, " I could not go away ; my hus- 
band is buried here, and then my children too — I had 
four — they are all dead, and they all lie near Moscow 
— how could I go away and leave them all behind 
me ? You see I am in the midst of them here !" 
What a solace to the old affections ! In Saxony she 
would have been lost — in the Hospice of Moscow she 
was "in the midst of her children." 

In the rooms appropriated to those women who 
were failing there were fewer than in those of the men, 
and these did not take to their bed as the latter did. 



THE HOSPITAL. 287 

They managed to find occupation with their tea and 
talk, and in small employments suited to their nature, 
and kept up longer. These small occupations, what a 
blessing they are to poor humanity, and what a loss 
it is to men that they have few or none such for their 
old age or illness ! Happy the man who can turn his 
mind to small things as well as large ones. The day 
comes when he finds an interest in the former for 
his health and enjoyment of life, when his powers of 
study, of teaching, of mental activity are waning — 
when his day of great things is past. How much of 
simple happiness, I often think, could men find in 
their old age, if in their youth they were taught some 
manual work — some small operation requiring care in 
detail, such as carpentering, or book-binding, or shoe- 
making, or netting! Women have their unfailing 
needlework — what have men? Smoking! What a 
stupid resource ! 

Our way from this part of the building led through 
the church into the hospital half of the establishment. 
It was empty at that hour, but every morning there 
is service in it, and all of the old people who can at- 
tend do so, but there is no compulsion. Very many 
are not able to hobble so far. 

In the hospital part the doctor was in his own par- 



288 SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS. 

ticular element. Here the same order was observed 
— the men downstairs and the women on the upper 
floor. The detail of this part of the Hospice was more 
elaborate than the other, for here every modern re- 
quisite was supplied in the promotion of cleanliness 
and comfort for the dying persons who were re- 
moved here at the last. Evidently this part of the 
institution was very carefully looked after, and the 
bath-rooms were particularly cheerful, as were those 
in which the poor old people were to end their days. 
There were nurses moving about with that noiseless 
step and composed manner so peculiar to the genus, 
and which tell so clearly of a thorough knowledge 
of their business. In various rooms were small 
kitchen stoves for the easy and rapid preparation 
of restoratives of the sinking strength of the sick and 
the dying. In one room were three or four beds, 
all occupied by old men too ill to remain in the 
larger rooms. Here, with the coverlets drawn over 
their heads, they lay still, awaiting the final hour, and 
a few days more would see them all carried away to 
their last home in the cemetery. 

In this part of the building were some apartments 
used as a general hospital for the sick of the better 
classes in the city. There were some ladies in the fe- 



THE GOVERNOR'S ROOM. 289 

male departments ; and in one room for men were 
three persons in bed, young men, all of them members 
of noble families of Moscow. The manager whis- 
pered to me " that there were many noble families 

very poor." After what the Count L had told 

me of the subdivision of property this was not difficult 
to understand. There were beds for one hundred 
men, and the same number of women in this general 
hospital, but there were only a few occupied. 

This happened to be the first day of September, 
and this being the day of distribution of money to 
poor pensioners, I entered the room of the governor 
of the institution at the moment that this was going 
on. This was the public and official apartment, one 
of noble proportions on the ground-floor. Full- 
length portraits of the Czars Alexander, Nicholas, and 
the second Alexander, were on the walls; and the 
usual long " board of green cloth " stretched down the 
centre of the room for the uses of the " council of ad- 
ministration." In a corner was the private table of the 
Governor of the institution, a fine old man, tall and 
soldierly — a general officer. He invited me in a cor- 
dial and frank way to a seat, and we sat and talked 
over the Hospice, while his secretary at a far-off door 
received and despatched the claimants of the pensions. 

u 



290 EXPENSES OF THE HOSPICE. 

These were principally women, in number about two 
hundred ; and among them, in the course of the year, 
is distributed the sum of ten thousand silver roubles — 
equal to about one thousand five hundred pounds ster- 
ling. On my asking the Governor what were the qua- 
lifications for entrance into the Hospice as well as for 
the pension list, he said, 

" The applications for both are not very numerous, 
so many people of the decent class being disinclined to 
tell the tale of their distress. Indeed, we keep a man 
whose business it is to seek out deserving persons in 
want, and this man, too, makes all inquiries about 
those who do apply to us of their own accord. None 
under a certain age can come into the Hospice, and 
helplessness and poverty are the principal claims ad- 
vanced. Of course a certain respectability of charac- 
ter is requisite ; but," said the General, " misfortune 
is the principal qualification for both, and of that we 
have plenty in our country to fill many such institu- 
tions." 

The general expenses of the Hospice, he said, were 
about thirty thousand roubles per annum. There 
was also an expenditure of ten thousand roubles on 
the pensions, and in addition another fund was pro- 
vided of ten thousand roubles for marriage portions 



SOCIETE FRATERNELLE. 291 

to meritorious young persons, and for donations to 
deserving individuals who were impoverished by mis- 
fortune. Thus the whole sum expended annually 
through the Hospice Sheremaytieff was about fifty 
thousand roubles ; and as the estates and funds left 
for this munificent purpose produced about fifty-three 
thousand roubles a year there was a sum left over 
for repairs of buildings. There were about forty mar- 
riage gifts to girls in each year, of one hundred rou- 
bles each. 

On my referring to what the general had said of 
the Hospice keeping a man to search out respectable 
persons in want, he observed, 

44 There is in Moscow a body of men who may be 
called a ' Societe Fraternelle,' and who make it their 
business to search out poor families, and aid them by 
advice, by money, by medical attendance, by better 
food. These persons even rent houses in different 
parts of Moscow, and place in them some of the sick 
and destitute," and the fine old soldier's eyes gleamed 
as he related these proofs of the warm-heartedness 
and the active benevolence of his countrymen. " You 
see," he said, 44 out in the country, in wild villages, 
our common people are not much looked after ; but 

u 2 



292 RUSSIAN BENEVOLENCE. 

in the towns, and especially in Moscow, we try to do 
something to make up for this." 

I could only offer all my homage of praise to such 
noble acts of benevolence as that Hospice, and its ad- 
mirable and considerate detail towards the aged and 
the helpless, a credit to any people and any country. 
Methought, as I walked home, that this Hospice, and 
what I had seen to-day, and what I had heard of the 
" Societe Fraternelle " of Moscow, spoke volumes in 
favour of the kindly nature of the Russian people, 
and showed that there is a fine and noble side, as 
well as a vicious one, to the Russian character. 



293 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Visit to the Convent of Troitsa — Its Foundation, Destruction and Re- 
establishment — Historical Reminiscences connected with the Convent 
— Napoleon's Attempt to seize the Building and its Treasures — The 
Patriarch Philarete's First Railway Journey — The Town, the Valley, 
and the Convent — Agricultural Labour done by Women — The Col- 
lege and Churches of Vefania — Residence of the Metropolitan Pla- 
ton — Old Church — Representation of the Mount of Olives — Valuable 
Paintings — The Tomb of Platon — The Church of Gethsemane — An 
Ecclesiastical Diversion or Feint — Appearance of the Metropolitan — 
A Singular Monastery — Fanaticism in the Russo- Greek Church — 
Recluses in Underground Cells — Religion and Usefulness. 

"VTO one can go to Moscow without going to Troitsa. 



^ This is an imperative duty on a traveller, for 
Troitsa is a part of Moscow story, as it is the Holy of 
Holies of religious Russia. It lies at a distance of 
forty wersts, near thirty miles, due north of the city. 
This celebrated place is a fortress as well as a con- 
vent, and has fought its battles, stood its sieges, 
beaten off its besiegers, and unfurled its nag of 
victory. It dates from the year 1342, and was found- 
ed by St. Sergius, as were so many other convents. 




294 CONVENT OF TROITSA. 

Sacked in 1408 by the Tahtars, underthe Khan Edigei, 
it was re-established in 1423, since which time its 
sacred precincts have been dishonoured by no hostile 
foot. In 1 608 it was besieged by a force of thirty 
thousand Poles, but it beat off all attacks for sixteen 
months, and was then relieved ; and even so late as 
since the election of the Romanoff family to the Im- 
perial throne Troitsa beat off a body of Poles. On 
two occasions its strong walls were the refuge and 
defence of Peter the Great and of his half-brother, 
John, when boys, and when their sister Sophia, in 
her intrigues to maintain her influence and her hold 
on the throne, roused the Pretorian Streltsi in her 
favour ; and here Natalia, the mother of Peter, re- 
tained him in secret until the ambitious and able So- 
phia was put down and incapacitated from further mis- 
chief by imprisonment for her life. In 1812 the Em- 
peror Napoleon sent out from Moscow on more than 
one occasion a body of his troops with orders to 
seize Troitsa and its treasures, but something always 
. prevented the troops from reaching it. The priests 
and the devotees declare that it was the Virgin and 
St. Sergius combined who threw obstacles in the way 
of the expedition, and rendered it futile, before the 
troops got half way. Of course this is the true ex- 



VISIT TO TROITSA. 295 

planation of the matter; but there are some foolish 
people who say that, as there was a heavy body of 
Russians placed by the commander-in-chief on the 
Twer road to the north-west, and another on the Vla- 
dimir road to the north-east, and as these two joined 
hands across the Troitsa road, which ran due north 
half-way between them, Napoleon's men found it not 
convenient to pass the line of these Russian bodies, as 
they might not have got back again. So the Troitsa 
treasures remained untouched. As the convent once 
possessed over one hundred thousand serfs it may be 
imagined the treasures were worth an effort on the part 
of Napoleon ; they are, in fact, something astounding 
in gold and silver and jewels ; but thirty miles are a 
long road for weakened and disheartened troops, with 
the Virgin and St. Sergius very angry in front, and 
two armies of highly-fed and fierce undaunted sol- 
diery shaking hands across it. 

One day in conversation with the English Consul 
he very kindly proposed that his son, a very intelli- 
gent young man, and a capital Russian scholar, should 
be my companion to Troitsa for a day. Could any- 
thing be more well-timed and advantageous ? So one 
morning my young friend and I started by an early 
train, and at ten o'clock we were at Troitsa. As we 



296 THE PATRIARCH AND THE RAILWAY. 

went my companion said that this railway was at first 
strongly objected to by the Church party, as the Pope 
at Rome had done at first in the case of his railway ; 
and when it was completed the Patriarch Philarete, an 
old gentleman imbued with anti-railway ideas, as being 
anti-Church, and convinced that this iron road was a 
very levelling invention, had declared he would not 
travel by it. But at last, finding that the sovereign 
and nobles travelled by it, and that even priests did 
so without any open demonstration of displeasure on 
the part of the Virgin or St. Sergius, he was coaxed 
into trying it too. A small favoured few went with 
him from Moscow to Troitsa ; and when he found 
how very easy and smooth and swift he moved along 
through the country, his face, at first serious and 
troubled, as if he were undertaking a very doubtful 
matter which might bring on him a judgment and a 
punishment, gradually relaxed and brightened. After 
a time one of his companions, observing the effect on 
him, ventured to ask him what he thought of it ? 
This was a posing question to a man in a state of 
mind half way from objection to satisfaction; but 
being, as he was, a man of ability and not narrowed 
beyond a certain legitimate point by prejudices, not 
blind to realities, he shook his head kindly and re- 



TROITSA. 297 

plied, "It is very clever." From this time lie tra- 
velled by it always. 

Troitsa is a large village, or small town. A steep- 
sided winding valley runs through the country, and 
on one side of this is the little straggling town, on the 
other the convent. The valley, with a small stream 
at the bottom, winds round three sides of a hill, and 
on this height the lofty walls of the convent, thirty 
feet high, with many towers, rise grandly and well- 
defined into the air. The valley forms a natural 
broad deep ditch to the fortress on the three sides, 
and on the fourth the ponderous wall runs over an 
open level space, long and broad. On this open 
space are many carriages and droschkies for hire, 
numerous booths of small commodities for sale, and 
some considerable buildings, consisting of hotels, 
stables, and a few shops and common houses, the 
whole dependent on the convent for existence. The 
convent is the life of the place. 

On arriving at the station we found a considerable 
collection of people, and heard that by good fortune 
this was a day of some importance, a day on which a 
certain church or shrine in the immediate vicinity of 
the convent was open to the entrance of women — the 
only day in the whole year on which they were not 



298 VEFANIA, 

excluded. My companion and I agreed that we 
would take a carriage and drive to the unlocked-for- 
a-day shrine, and also to one or two other sacred spots 
in the neighbourhood, and finish with the convent. 
" For," said rny companion, " when once we are in 
the convent we shall never get out again in time for 
anything else." 

So we drove to a small village called Vefania, in 
Russian — Bethany, in English. This is about two 
miles from Troitsa. The country was picturesque 
with woods and hills, and as we approached Vefania 
there were long sheets of water in wooded hollows, a 
pretty succession of small lakes. The people in num- 
bers were in the fields, heavy with the ripe corn ; but 
I observed that all these labourers were women, 
reapers and gatherers into sheaves, a sight which 
wounds the eyes. It is a bad sign of a country and 
its civilized condition when women do the hard work 
in the fields, and the men idle in the villages with 
brandy and tobacco. 

Vefania stood on a high bank, at the extremity of 
the lakes, and consisted but of a few buildings, which 
might almost be summed up in these — a college, two 
churches, and a diminutive dwelling-house. The col- 
lege was a considerable white building, now empty. 



THE METROPOLITAN PLATON. 299 

It had been once occupied by students for the 
church in the days of the former and famous Metro- 
politan, Platon. Passing this we arrived at a pretty 
gateway with a quaint tower above it, beyond which, 
in a grass inclosure, stood the two churches, a new 
one and *an old one, and a dwelling-house. This 
house was of the most modest dimensions, consisting 
of but two or three rooms on one storey. What a 
quiet and retired and pretty spot it was ! The gate- 
way, the iron railings painted and gilded, the quaint 
old church, the bright new one, the little house with 
a fountain in its front — all encircling the grass plot. 
This had been the favourite place of residence of the 
once famous Platon. In these few rooms he had 
lived, in this rural spot, with his books, his windows 
looking over his small garden to the lakes and the 
woods and the towers of Troitsa, with his little church 
beside him and the college which he had built close at 
hand, and in which the education of young men gave 
him, the learned man, a daily interest. By the fountain 
was an inscription to the effect " that here the Emperor 
Paul," — eccentric and unhappy Paul — " with his Em- 
press and children had one day come and paid a visit to 
Platon, and had dined with him in the room upstairs." 
How happy and how peaceful seemed the picture. 



300 platon's residence. 

as one imagined the monarch and the bishop talking 
as men, with the prattle of children around them 
— the quiet meeting and sociable hour — and then con- 
trasted it with the troubled life and end full of horror 
of the erratic and unfortunate Czar, only a man, and 
not a monarch ! We went up into the rooms. They 
were exquisitely neat and bright and sunny, long and 
rather narrow, the drawing-room within the dining- 
room. They looked like a pretty French apartment 
in the suburb of Passy or St. Germain. The carpet 
and chairs were all of light cottage patterns, the latter 
with chintz-covered cushions. Water-coloured paint- 
ings of French scenery by French pencils, in the 
style of Watteau, were numerous on the walls. The 
walls were hung with paper, also of cottage patterns. 
The view from the windows, of wood, and water, and 
wavy fields, was charming, and the rooms had a feel- 
ing of home and repose about them which gave one a 
happy idea of the great Metropolitan, a man of bright 
and genial mind and refined tastes. To be sure the 
sleeping-room was a curiously small closet at one end 
of the drawing-room, just big enough for a pallet bed 
and a diminutive table and a chair. It looked as if 
the great ecclesiastic had wished to keep often around 
him what would remind him of the first and early 



THE OLD CHURCH. 301 

days of his career, when he was but a simple servitor 
of the church. At one end of the eating-room was 
the door into the drawing-room, and at the other was 
one opening on to a gallery or small corridor looking 
into the church. The library was a small room from 
the dining apartment, and here were still his famous 
theses in Latin on a table. The whole had the air of 
being only left for a day or two, and Platon expected 
back. 

The old church within the precincts of Platon's 
residence was a small quaint building, now rarely 
used. There was no flight of steps to it. You 
entered at once on the ground into a corridor running 
all round and enclosing a circular hall, and fully half 
this hall, right across in front from side to side, was 
occupied by a fanciful construction representing the 
Mount of Olives at Jerusalem. This was the Bethany 
of the place. Here were all the usual and appropri- 
ate indentations of the ground, small hills and valleys, 
corn-fields and grass, with olive-trees and shrubs, and 
over which cattle and sheep were scattered, and 
shepherds, and a procession of people on a pathway. 
There were very few figures now remaining, but the 
priest said that there had once been hundreds, but 
that people had stolen them one by one, carrying them 



302 THE TOMB OF PLATON. 

off as something sacred. The "Mount" was full 
twenty feet long and twelve feet high, rising from the 
floor to the level of a gallery which ran round the 
church over the corridor below, and must once have 
been a very elaborate and clever production of the 
devout artist. It was done by a Greek monk who 
had been in the convent at Jerusalem. Now the 
whole thing was faded, dilapidated, and dirty, and 
the new and larger church hard by, with its fresh 
gilding and brilliant priests, was taking away all wor- 
shippers from the old decaying one which was now 
but a relic of the past. In the corridor below there 
was a " Descent from the Cross," by Rubens, presented 
by a Count SouwarofF ; and a "Holy Family" of 
Correggio, given by the Prince Potemkin ; but these 
were scarcely visible in the dingy, ill-lighted passage, 
and were fading with the rest of the building. In the 
crypt at the back of the " Mount of Olives" was the 
tomb of Platon, his effigy in marble, his robes in cases. 
The face was declared to be an exact likeness. The 
head and forehead were fine, broad, and massive, and 
the mouth full and genial, realizing the man of profound 
religious theses in the morning in the study, and of 
easy bright companionship at dinner time in the 
afternoon in the pretty rooms of St. Germain with 



GETHSEMANE. 303 

Watteau pictures and chintz cushions. So the name 
of Bethany remains, but the spirit of the place is 
gone, and Platon's tomb and robes are in dust and dirt. 

We drove from this to "Gethsemane" — from the past 
to the present. This is a church founded in 1845 by 
Philarete, then the Metropolitan of Moscow, and was 
in all its glory. Women are only admitted on one 
day, the 29th of August, which is dedicated to the 
ascent of the Virgin into heaven. Now " Bethany " 
was still and sleeping, and "Gethsemane" was all 
alive and awake. At the gates of the enclosure were 
crowds of carriages and people, and a small im- 
promptu town of vendors of fruit, wine, and kvas, 
and vodka and tea. formed a small fair for a busy 
trade. Within the gate was a grass enclosure, with 
two churches and other pretty buildings and gardens, 
and these stretched down to a shrubbery and a 
shaded valley, with fine trees and a stream of water 
with rustic bridges and seats, a pleasant ecclesiastic 
retreat from Moscow and Troitsa. Clearly the Geth- 
semane of to-day was a rival of Bethany of yesterday. 
The enclosure was filled with people, principally 
women ; the sex had taken advantage of its one day of 
admission and mustered strong. 

My companion and I at once went into the church, 



304 INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH. 

in which the service was going on. We found it full 
to overflowing, and could hardly make our way in. 
It was curiously built. We entered on a raised plat- 
form, with an exit at either extremity, and from this 
platform two staircases, of about twenty steps each, 
descended by the walls down into the body of the 
church below, having its Ikonostas on that lower level. 
There was a gallery and another Ikonostas above, 
so that there was in fact a kind of double church — one 
above, one below. The lower church was now in 
use. We found all the platform crowded, both stair- 
cases crammed with people, and also the body of the 
place below and the gallery above. The gates of the 
Ikonostas were closed, incense was rising from within 
it, and the fine deep tones of the priests rose and fell 
as the service proceeded. Occasionally the body of 
rich sound ceased, and then a thin, weak, but rather 
musical voice chanted a few sentences, and was again 
succeeded by the powerful voices of the priests 
in a mass of sound like that of an organ. Many of 
the people had books, and were very attentive. The 
weak, thin voice — was it that of the Metropolitan 
Philarete ? my companion inquired ; but some said 
"Yes," and some said "No." At last the service 
came to an end, and then commenced a scene of ex- 



A FEINT. 305 

traordinary confusion. The moment the gates of the 
Ikonostas opened, an elderly priest came out, and 
there was a general movement to kiss his hand. The 
crush was so great that we thought it better to get out 
and see the Metropolitan go by out of doors from the 
one church to the other, as we were informed he 
would do. So we went out, and in a few minutes 
he appeared at the head of a procession of priests, the 
people forming a lane. But as he was not very old, 
and was rather strong and sturdy, we came to the con- 
clusion that after all this was not the Metropolitan, 
particularly as we heard a service still going on in the 
church. So we went back again. 

On our re-entering the church, we found that the 
Papa and the procession had been only a kind of feint 
— a diversion of the throng from the Metropolitan. 
He was still within the Ikonostas, as we were quietly 
informed by an attendant. Only a few people were 
in the church, on the platform, on the stairs, and in 
the galleries. As the time and occasion seemed 
propitious, there was now an attempt to get the 
Metropolitan out. But now commenced a more ex- 
traordinary scene than the former one. The moment 
that the gilded doors were opened and the old man 
with his white hair and thin face appeared, there was 

x 



306 EXTRAORDINARY SCENE. 

a rush from all quarters towards him. The smoke of 
the incense still filled the Ikonostas, and in the midst 
of this cloud appeared five or six men, the old man in 
front, erect and noble-looking, clad in white, with a 
crozier of silver with precious stones projecting from 
a blue velvet case in his hand, and priests around him. 
Four men in a rich blue and silver livery now ap- 
proached, one supporting him on either side, and two 
in front to clear the way. But the first step the Me- 
tropolitan made down into the church was the signal 
for a fight. The people fairly dashed at the old man 
to seize his hands and kiss them, and had it not been 
for the two supporting servants he must have been 
thrown down in the rush. The two men in front 
were fairly overpowered and hurled back on the 
others, and the whole party looked as if they would 
come in the melee to the ground. Then the two 
leaders, savage at this discomfiture, caught hold of 
the people, men and women, indiscriminately, and 
threw them one on the other, breaking out into loud 
abuse of these zealous devotees. In the midst of this 
the old man struggled on, or rather the liveried at- 
tendants bore him along, passive in their hands, his 
thin white hands every now and then appearing 
above the heads of the throng, and rapidly making 



THE METROPOLITAN. 307 

crosses till seized and dragged down again into the 
crowd of bending heads. When the women had suc- 
ceeded, in spite of furious men and raging attendants, 
in kissing the white hands, they fell back in a dis- 
hevelled condition, caps and garments all awry, and, 
breathless and happy, went off in knots into cor- 
ners, put each other to rights, and told of their 
victories. The men walked grandly off, shook their 
shock heads, and gave themselves a general convul- 
sion after the fight, like Newfoundland dogs on 
emerging from water. How the old man got up the 
stairs I do not know, for an attendant piteously 
begged us to go off the platform, and let the Metropo- 
litan come up and get out. My companion and I of 
course went out, that is, we suffered ourselves to be 
carried hither and thither by the swaying mass of 
outsiders, who had found out what was going on in- 
side, and were resolved on getting in to share hi the 
blessings their friends were receiving from the aged 
chief's hands. "We gained with difficulty a corner on 
a staircase by the outer porch leading up to the colle- 
giate rooms above, and here we waited until the old 
man came by. Presently he appeared, a wreck, help- 
lessly borne along by the two men in livery, surging 
masses before and behind, while the two attendants 

x 2 



308 CHARACTER OF PHIL ARETE. 

who cleared the way were by this time red and 
streaming with perspiration from their exertions, 
savage with the difficulties they had to encounter, 
and utterly reckless of all decorum or considera- 
tion towards men or women. How they fought ! — 
off the platform, through the porch, down the steps, 
and out at last into the open air. It was exactly like 
a rouge at football under the playing-fields wall at 
Eton. The scene at the Simonoff Convent on the 
day of the fair, when the Superior walked along the 
paved way from his lodgings to the church, was one 
of violent devotion strange to witness ; but this scene 
at " Gethsemane " left it far in the rear in its fanatical 
fury. 

Poor old gentleman ! this was among his last 
earthly triumphs — if so it can be called — a triumph 
of his popularity — an occasion for the ardent ex- 
pression of the people's love towards him. He is 
now gone to his rest. Philarete was an amiable and 
an able and devoted man, a good scholar, a man of a 
liberal tone of thought, given to enjoy the literature 
of other countries and the conversation of foreigners. 
Like a patriarch of old he has been gathered to his 
fathers, full of years and of honours. 

My companion and I took a quiet way across the 



THE FLOKENCE NIGHTINGALE* OF MOSCOW. 309 

grassy enclosure to the shrubby valley, and the mur- 
muring stream, and the shady fir-trees. How quiet 
it all was after the savage religious drama enacted in 
the church ! As we went, we met various little 
groups of persons sauntering about in the valley and 
on the lawns, some of them acquaintances of my com- 
panion. Among the latter was one lady, small, still 
youthful, neatly dressed, and with a cheerful coun- 
tenance, pleasing from the expression of goodness on 
it. As we strolled along I asked him who this lady 
was. 

" That lady," said he, " is a very remarkable per- 
son. She is the Florence Nightingale of Moscow — 
the life and soul of many of the best charities of 
the city ; she is always occupied, and whatever she 
undertakes she does well. She spends her fortune 
and her time in these things." 

On my expressing a wish to have known her and 
seen her in Moscow, he said she was only here for a 
day on a holiday — the Women's Day at Gethsema- 
ne. I could not help a regret at thus missing an 
opportunity of being acquainted with a lady so excel- 
lent and so estimable. In the midst of all the cor- 
ruption and the gambling in high places, and the 
depravity and fanaticism of the lower classes in 



310 UNDERGROUND MONASTERY. 

Moscow, it was evident there was also a warm and 
lofty spirit of benevolence, a refining and large- * 
hearted tenderness for others in the Russian, not 
surpassed in any people or in cities of more civil- 
ized countries. There must be a tone of mind wor- 
thy of a great nation where such things are done, 
and where such persons live and use their time and 
means as this lady, and the SheremaytiefF, and the 
Galitzin, and many others of their class. 

Across the wooded valley was a singular place 
— a kind of monastery, part of it above ground 
and part underground. We purchased each of us 
a taper of a man at the head of a flight of steps, 
many other persons doing the same, and descended, 
headed by an attendant, into a cavernous place, re- 
minding one of the catacombs at Rome on a small 
scale. In this we followed corridor after corridor, 
narrow and low, now emerging into a small chapel, 
then into a cavern with a fountain, and then into 
a cave where was a well. As we went we passed 
many a door in the rocky side. These doors were 
the entrances into small caves or cells inhabited by 
monks, recluses from the world. Fanaticism is so 
fostered in the Greek Church that it results in some 
cases in the production of hermits and anchorites, as 



CELLS OF THE KECLUSES. 311 

in the days of St. Anthony. Here, in this nineteenth 
century, were men who had shut themselves up from 
the world in dark caves underground for years, 
thinking they were doing God service. They were 
voluntary recluses. On passing one closed door, the 
attendant said, 

"The man in there has been shut up for eight 
years without going out." 

On coming to another door, we found it open. 

u Ah !" said the attendant, " that man has been in 
there for thirteen years, but he is gone out to-day to 
the feteJ 1 

We went in, and found that the place consisted of 
an outer cell and two inner ones. Both doors were 
open, and in one of these was nothing but a pallet 
bedstead and a chair. 

" The man who was in there died," said the at- 
tendant ; "he was in there a good many years, and a 
little time since he died." 

The other cell was furnished. These cells were 
about ten feet long by eight broad, and six in height. 
There was a chimney to each and a small stove. 
The furniture consisted of a wooden pallet bedstead, 
with a straw mattress and a coverlet. There was a 
chair, a small stock of wood in a corner, two or three 



312 



AN UNPRODUCTIVE LIFE. 



earthenware pots for cooking — in one of them some 
scraps of fish — and a few stained and worn books of 
prayer on a shelf. In a corner was the never-omitted 
little picture, or image, as it is called in Russia, of the 
Virgin. What a den for a human being to occupy 
voluntarily during thirteen years ! What an empty 
and unproductive life, dragging vacantly on from day 
to day by the charity of others, and giving back 
not one single act of usefulness ! What is re- 
ligion, if it be not useful? What a contrast, me- 
thought, between this man breathing away his days in 
darkness and idle dreaming, voluntarily shutting out 
the bright sun which God has given so beneficently 
to his creatures, and letting the powers of a Godlike 
reason and all the wealth of human sympathies run 
to waste, and that little lady on the lawn by the 
church, so abounding in active goodness to the poor 
and the desolate, so bright an example of the capa- 
bility which even one fragile but earnest human be- 
ing possesses of lighting up the hearths and warming 
the hearts of the unfortunate and the unhappy many ! 



313 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A New Investment for the Money of Monks — The Walls of the Monas- 
tery — Spacious Promenade — Interesting Serving Monk — Interior 
of the Church — Gaudy Paintings — Restoration of Frescoes by an En- 
thusiastic Merchant — An Ill-advised Monk — Sale of Holy Water — ■ 
The Day of St. Serge— The Baker's Shop— The Cathedral— Sale of 
Candles, Images, and Oil — Rich Display of Pictures, Gold, Silver, 
and Precious Stones — The Treasury — Dining Hall of the Monks — 
Primitive Hospitality — The Hospital — The Dying Monks — The 
Greek Monk — Differences in Monkish Life— The Bloodstained 
Tower — A Monk's Cell — Ecclesiastical Academy — The Troitsa Con- 
vent a Microcosm. 

II T Y companion and I drove back to the convent. 
j * L "-"- It is to be feared that the monks of Troitsa are 
not altogether spiritually-minded, but that a certain 
amount of worldly leaven has leavened the whole 
establishment. At all events there are some men 
among them who possess what are called practical 
minds. Perhaps great wealth and long-continued 
prosperity have had their usual effect even on these 
recluses, and have tarnished a little the purity of their 
nature. Anyhow there is a large hotel on the broad 



314 WALLS OF THE MONASTERY. 

square or place immediately outside the convent walls, 
which hotel has been built by the monks for the 
benefit of visitors to Troitsa, and as a good invest- 
ment of a portion of their abounding treasure. My 
companion and I found a good native cuisine at the 
hostelry, and then went to see the interior of this 
famous monastery. 

The walls have a circuit of one mile, minus only 
two hundred and sixty yards. These are battle- 
ment ed, and are a grand and striking feature of the 
place. In some places, for instance where they tra- 
verse the public square, they reach a height of over 
thirty feet, and with the ditch below, form a noble 
and warlike barrier. On other sides, where they 
hang over the narrow, steep valley, their height has 
a still more imposing effect. On the inside there is a 
raised covered way, which runs round the entire wall. 
It is neatly paved with brick, and raised so high 
that those on it can look out through the openings of 
the battlements. It is about twenty feet in breadth, 
and enclosed on its inner side by a low wall, and thus 
there is always a spacious promenade of nearly one 
mile in length, protected by its heavy tiled roof from 
the heats of summer and the snows of winter. 
There are commanding views from it over all the 



AN OLD MONK. 315 

surrounding country ; and beneath it are the many 
extensive offices for summer and winter stores, sta- 
bling, and other purposes of the convent. 

A fine arched gateway opens from the public square 
into the outer courts, and entering you find yourself 
in the sacred precincts — large grassy places, shady 
trees, paved pathways, broad and orderly, churches, 
offices, halls — a picturesque carelessness of arrange- 
ment, a rich and beautiful seclusion, a place of repose 
and rest, of study and meditation. That peculiar 
charm pervades it which one experiences on entering 
a cathedral. You feel inclined to sit down and be 
silent, and let your spirit partake of the beauty and 
the sentiment of the genius loci. 

My companion and I followed a broad paved way 
leading into the centre of the enclosure, where were 
scattered about the principal buildings. As we were 
passing a large church — The Assumption of the Virgin 
— an old man in a monkish dress stood on the top of 
a flight of steps beneath the usual projecting porch, in 
which there was a mixture of Italian and Byzantine 
styles with a Norman arch, rich, coloured, gilded, bi- 
zarre. There was something more than usually pleasing 
in the old man's face, and while we stopped for a 
moment hesitating whether we should go on at once 



316 A GREEK CATHEDRAL. 

to the church of the Trinity— the cathedral — the shrine 
of St. Serge — the place of gold and silver, of diamonds 
and of jewelled lamps — the old man bowed and ad- 
dressed ns in French. This of course attracted us. In 
reply to our questions he said he had once been a 
soldier, and having gone to Paris in 1815 with the 
Russian army and the Czar Alexander, he had while 
there picked up a few French phrases. On retiring 
from the army on account of a wound, he had entered 
Troitsa as a serving monk, and had been there ever 
since. Now he took care of this church, the largest 
in the monastery, though not the cathedral. A Greek 
cathedral is not an imposing structure such as are ours 
in England, but usually is only a church rather 
larger than others. No Latin or Teuton would call 
the cathedral of the Kremlin by that title. The old 
man was now seventy-five years of age. He was hale, 
hearty, and genial, and in his limited and broken 
French voluble about Paris and his military days. 
Evidently, in spite of his many quiet years of ecclesi- 
astical life as a monkish servitor in Troitsa, the stir- 
ring portion of his youth stood out in his memory in 
strong relief. The simple monotony of his latter 
years seemed to have but little interest for him when 
I questioned him on them and their occupation, but 



INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH. 317 

his eyes lighted up with animation and his manner was 
full of vivacity when the French days and the army 
were alluded to. As is often the case with elderly 
persons the long-gone days and their events — and 
such events too ! — had the strongest hold on him. 

The whole interior of the church was brilliant with 
Greek painting. Evidently there had been lately a grand 
restoration and a general re-painting of pictures on 
a great scale, an unusual thing in the Russian churches, 
which, as a rule, it must be said, are dingy and dirty 
in their interior, though smart enough outside. The 
huge and massive square pillars in the centre of the 
church, which supported the cupolas above, were 
gaudy with masses of strong colour ; but the ex- 
tremity, the great wall at the end facing the Ikonos- 
tas, was a marvel. On this lofty, broad, and un- 
broken face from pavement to roof, and from side to 
side, were two monstrous pictures, frescoes. A per- 
pendicular line in the centre divided them. One re- 
presented Salvation ; and here were gigantic and im- 
possible figures of hum an beings, defying all proportions, 
but intended to express the enjoyment of ease and 
happiness, and all going upwards to heaven. The other 
represented Condemnation ; and here were scenes of 
torment and woe unutterable, and figures of hapless 



318 RESTORATION OF TROITSA. 

beings all plunging desperately into Hades. But 
the colouring and the drawing ! The monstrosity of 
the whole was an outrage on Art. These alarming 
frescoes are said to be of the seventeenth century. 
It appeared that a Moscow merchant lately on a visit 
to Troitsa had remarked the condition of the convent 
generally, the state of exterior dilapidation of many 
of its buildings, and the dirty and faded interiors of 
all. Seized with a religious fervor he declared his 
♦intention to spend a large sum of money in the 
restoration of Troitsa generally ; he would repair — 
he would paint— he would spend one hundred thou- 
sand roubles ! It was a grand resolution. It was 
true that the convent, being very rich, enormously 
wealthy in jewels, and receiving large sums of money 
every year from devotees, and having, besides, 
landed estates, might have accomplished these repairs 
itself, or, indeed, might have prevented the necessity 
for them ; but the money had gone in other direc- 
tions, and not in repairs and paint. There were 
four hundred monks in Troitsa, and these were 
not fed for nothing. Besides there were, whispers 
that some of the money went at times towards St. 
Petersburg. After all, why should wealthy devo- 



THE LIBERAL MERCHANT. 319 

tees at Moscow be deprived, by such common vir- 
tues as monkish care and prudence, of a grand oppor- 
tunity of an act of soul-saving goodness ? The mer- 
chant set about his work in good earnest. Artists from 
Moscow were sent down to Troitsa, and this church 
was repaired and repainted, inside and out, and these 
two huge frescoes were restored, by the liberality of 
the merchant and the genius of his artists. The for- 
mer spent eight thousand five hundred roubles on 
this church. There was a grand re-opening, and a 
gorgeous ceremony, and everybody was happy. And 
now the merchant, in the fulness of his satisfaction, 
was meditating on a second work of restoration wor- 
thy of his great intentions, when, lo ! some malevo- 
lent spirit one night, prompted by Satan, whisper- 
ed one of the monks to hint to him that what 
he was doing was admirable — most admirable ; but 
still there was " a small something " to be done 
about the convent which was even more important 
than the restoration of the churches, if he would 
allow him just to suggest it. "A small some- 
thing !" How very impertinent ! And this to a 
man ardent with grand ideas ! The merchant was 
very wroth, and took it as a great offence that 



320 SALE OF HOLY WATER. 

when he was undertaking such a high and neces- 
sary work a monk should suggest a diversion of his 
money to something else ; it was an unpardonable 
interference with his intention, and he would do no 
more for ungrateful Troitsa. Miserable ill-inspired 
monk ! By a few words he had brushed away over 
ninety thousand roubles. The merchant paid the 
eight thousand five hundred roubles for the work of 
the one church, and refused to spend another kopeck 
on the place. 

Immediately outside this church was a small and 
graceful buildings like a diminutive chapel. It was 
circular, of red brick, with white stone framing of the 
windows, white arches, supported by slender twisted 
columns, and with fretted ornaments — a composite 
and fanciful structure. Going round to the door, we 
found the interior occupied by a monk keeping a little 
shop. Here were photographs of people and build- 
ings, crosses, rosaries, pictures of the Virgin, carvings 
in wood, and other wares of a like kind, all in neat 
glass cases on two counters. But the chief and prin- 
cipal stock in trade of the monk was water. Tins 
was the cause of all the rest. At the far side of the 
little apartment — the two counters on either hand — 
there was a well with a three foot wall enclosing it, 



THE HOLY WATER OF TROITSA. 321 

and a silver bucket with rope and chain resting on it. 
The well was only about ten feet deep, and the buck- 
et would hold about two gallons. This was the holy 
water of Troitsa. 

The monk was a cheerful talking man, and gave us 
a smiling welcome as we stepped into his little circu- 
lar room. He said that people came in every day, 
and most of these purchased something, either an 
image, or a photograph, or some beads, or a locket 
with portraits of two saints — all of which he recom- 
mended to us in turn with quite an engaging, smiling 
way, and a turn for business worthy of the Rows in 
the Kitai Gorod at Moscow, adding in a hearty way, 

" And then everybody drank some of the water, 
that they did of course, even if they bought nothing, 
and some would carry it away in little bottles ; of 
course the water was free of all charge — and we 
would drink some, it was so pure, and so healthy." 

And with this he dropped the silver bucket down 
to the water, and with two or three smooth easy pulls 
at the rope, hand over hand, he had it up on the wall, 
full and bright with its sparkling contents. It cer- 
tainly was delicious — a sweet clear water, and most 
grateful on that hot summer day. We asked him about 
the day of St. Serge — that must be a busy day for him. 



322 the baker's shop. 

" Ah ! yes," he replied, " that is a great day, and 
they all come here for the water, and it has happened 
more than once that the well has been drunk dry — 
every drop used — and the bucket at last only brought 
up wet mud ; but the people would have it, even 
that." 

We carried off some photographs — " done in the 
convent," said the monk; "one of our brothers is very 
clever at it." 

From this we went on to another small picturesque 
building, " where," said my companion, " the monks 
sell loaves of a beautifully fine white bread, made 
from wheat of their own growing and grinding ; lots 
of people come here almost every day and buy these, 
and then take them into the church of St. Serge and 
have them blessed by the priest, who picks off a little 
scrap as a toll." The baker's shop was neatness itself. 
A long counter ran from end to end of the room, some 
fourteen or fifteen feet, and beyond this was a high long 
range of closets, with shelves and drawers. In these 
were the loaves. Two or three monks were standing 
about by the door and the counter, but the seller was 
a young and handsome lad, scarcely out of his teens, 
with long glistening hair parted in front and waving 
and curling down over his shoulders. He had fine 



CHURCH OF ST. SERGE. 323 

eyes and a delicate complexion, and in liis long plain 
black dress he looked like a woman, his face was so 
effeminate, and his throat so round and bare and 
white. At our request the pretty grave bread-seller 
produced various small loaves from different drawers 
in a quick business style, perfect specimens of cottage 
and, what one might call, toy loaves in shape, col- 
our, and material. The roundness and proportion 
of form and delicacy of colouring were as a work of 
art. The sense of the beautiful was stronger in the 
baker's shop than in the frescoes of the large church- 
As we did not look like buyers for a family circle the 
discerning young monk did not offer us any of the 
paterfamilias loaves, fair two pounders, and even 
larger. We were contented with toy specimens. 

Going on from this we arrived at the cathedral — - 
the famous church of the Trinity — the Church of St. 
Serge. Here were no steps, no twisted Byzantine co- 
lumns, no projecting canopy, no raised corridor; the 
entrance was level with the ground. But a long closed 
portico, with a door at either end, was in front of the 
entrance. 

On entering one of the doors I found to my sur- 
prise that all along the side of the portico opposite to 
the entrance into the church was a high broad coun- 

y 2 



324 TRADE IN OIL AND TAPERS. 

ter, and on this were piles of wax tapers, and jars 
and cans of oil, while behind it were three or four 
monks. Here was another shop, and evidently doing 
a very considerable business. Really, methought, 
these Troitsa monks are wise in their generation ; they 
not only have a large hotel on the Place outside the 
gate, but they have a number of active trading estab- 
lishments inside. At the great gateway I now re- 
membered a notice in black letters on a white board to 
this effect : — "In the Convent are sold candles, 
images, bread, and oil." There were several small 
lay traders with their stalls out on the Place offering 
the same wares for sale ; and this notice of the monks 
appeared to be intended as a warning to pilgrims to 
St. Serge, " Don't. buy out there; all these things. are 
better in our shop inside." It did look a little grasp- 
ing, and not considerate to the small outsiders. Now 
in this portico were people coming and going in and 
out of the church, a perpetual movement, and as they 
passed through it many of them stopped to buy some- 
thing, a taper or two, or some oil, which they carried 
away in little bottles brought for the purpose. The 
oil-buyers, I observed, were invariably females. 
There was a brisk trade, for two monks, fine large 
men, were kept hard at work handing over the goods 



A LESSON FOR YOUNG GIRLS. 325 

across the counter, and receiving the kopecks in pay- 
ment, while another had a desk and kept account. 
The monk who served out the oil was a remarkably 
fine, tall, and handsome man ; but the perpetual 
going about with a huge can of lamp-oil, filling it 
from large jars, and then dispensing the contents into 
numerous small-mouthed bottles, is a service not con- 
ducive to coolness on a hot summer day, nor to clean- 
liness of dress and person. The monk was steaming 
with heat, and glistening with oil over his head and 
hands and dress. In reply to my inquiry of what the 
women and girls did with the oil, I was told that 
they buy it to feed the lamps always burning in the 
churches and before certain shrines and images ; and 
that the priests teach their young devotees that it is a 
very meritorious act to aid in keeping a lamp alight. 
"What a very ingenious little lesson for the youthful 
female mind ! — Thus — my dear little girl, you can do 
your soul good and please the Virgin by making an 
offering of holy oil to keep the lamp burning before 
her image, or the shrine of St. Serge or St. Nicholas, 
as the case may be. Imagine how many children 
would grow up with that idea strong in their minds, 
and how they would treasure up a kopeck or two con- 
tinually, and spend it in oil in the portico, and go to 



326 TOMB OF ST. SERGE. 

the priest inside and have it blessed, and then hand 
over the contents of the little bottle to the oil-keeper 
with an entire confidence in having done a good ac- 
tion. What a life-long sentiment or superstition to 
the child, and what a life-long gain of money to the 
monk and his fellows ! I could not help thinking 
that one of those oil-jars might be like the widow's 
cruse, never failing, — for St. Serge must have a quan- 
tity of oil offered to him which his lamp can never 
consume, and what so natural as that the superfluity 
of the morning oil should flow back steadily into that 
jar in an evening stream? 

This famous church was, it must be said, very dirty, 
but very rich in pictures, in gold, in silver, in preci- 
ous stones, in lamps. What splendid diamonds, real, 
and of immense size, on the picture of the Virgin, and 
what costly lamps before the tomb of St. Serge ! In 
front of this latter, which is composed entirely of sil- 
ver, a chaste and graceful canopied projection from 
the wall at one end of the Ikonostas, hang in a half- 
circle a row of lamps. These are of the most fanci- 
ful, varied, and elegant forms. There are perhaps 
ten or a dozen, and each is an offering to St. Serge 
by a personage. There is the lamp of the Emperor 
Nicholas, and one presented by his Empress, one 



THE TREASURY. 327 

by the Grand Duchess Marie, their daughter, one 
by the present Emperor, and one by the present Em- 
press ; then there is one of the little Grand Duke 
Serge, named after the Saint, and so on. They are 
suspended from a bow-shaped bar by gold chains, and 
are of chased gold, set with precious stones, each one 
an exquisite work of art. One of the most rich and 
of most delicate workmanship was sent anonymously. 
No one can guess who was the sender. The church 
was half full of people. It was small for a cathedral, 
and, with the exception of the Ikonostas and its 
riches, the whole interior was one of faded finery and 
worn-out furniture. The Moscow merchant ! — what 
an opportunity for him, if that foolish monk had but 
known that unasked-for advice is a device of Satan. 
We heard part of a service, the noble voices of the 
priests pealing grandly through the building. 

From this we went to the Treasury. This is a 
marvellous collection of valuables. Here are many 
rooms filled with cases of garments, ornaments, 
arms, curious works of art, stuffs heavy with gold, 
pearls, or precious stones. These arms and gar- 
ments have each a story, the wearers of them hav- 
ing been some Russian sovereign, potent noble, or 
captured enemy in the olden time. More than one 



328 DINING HALL OF THE MONKS. 

of the cloaks and coats were thick with rows and 
masses of pearls, and in one case these almost con- 
cealed the cloth on which they were sewn. This 
treasury is, however, of course, a modern collection. 
There is nothing in it that can be correctly termed 
antique. 

On leaving the Treasury, we found a monk idling 
about in one of the courts, so we enlisted him in our 
service as explorers of the non-religious life of the 
convent. Near the Trinity Church there was an ex- 
tensive building, long and moderately lofty. It might 
be a large hall, or it might be a fine library. The 
chief and principal part of it appeared to be a bel 
piano, first floor, with numerous lofty windows, and 
without any attic above it. Moreover, it was painted 
all over on its outside in a most bizarre style, resem- 
bling nothing so much as the dress of a harlequin or 
that of the Pope's guard at the Vatican. Mounting a 
long flight of steps to this we found ourselves in a 
noble hall — the dining hall of the monks. It was 
empty now. It was a grand apartment, with painted 
walls and an arched ceiling, and the far end was 
fitted up as a chapel, railed off with a low pretty gilt 
iron railing. The hall could not have been less than 
eighty feet in length exclusive of the chapel, and its 



THE OFFICES. 329 

breadth about thirty-five. Three long tables with 
benches extended the entire length. The chapel end 
was clean and bright with gilding, but the rest of the 
hall, ceiling, and walls would have benefited much 
by the roubles of the Moscow merchant. They were 
thoroughly dirty and faded, a marked contrast with 
the chapel, and also with the smart and fanciful exte- 
rior. However, when one considers that some four 
hundred monks sit down to a steaming dinner on 
most days in that rather low-ceilinged hall, the condi- 
tion of the walls is not surprising. In a small square 
room opening into the hall by a side door, and hav- 
ing a back staircase, were a few tables and stools. 
This was the room for late comers to dinner. These 
were not allowed to disturb those in the great hall 
when once grace had been sung and the monks were 
seated. Going down the back staircase, we came to 
the offices — kitchen, bakery, and other places. These 
were all arranged under the great hall. But it 
was a pain to see the utter dirt and disorder of all 
this part. We seemed to be at once carried back to 
some rude, long-gone time, when Rurik reigned at 
Moscow and Poles beleaguered Troitsa. The broken 
stair, the grass-grown courts, the blackened walls, the 
crumbling brickwork, the neglect and the ruin, the 



330 PRIMITIVE HOSPITALITY. 

soot-smeared kitchen, black and gloomy, the uncouth 
and greasy monks, begrimed of face and hands and 
dress — oh for the Moscow merchant ! 

However, it was evident that the recluses did not 
live badly. There were huge coppers for the daily 
soup of fish and vegetables, and there was an exten- 
sive hot plate, which told a tale of ingenious cookery. 
Immense circular loaves of rye bread, brown and 
wholesome, stood in ranges on mighty shelves, two 
hundred of which were the daily consumption. 
" But," said one of the cooks, " there are others of 
wheat, quite white, for the hospital and the sick." It 
was the employment of eight monks, besides the 
cooks, every day to make this rye bread for the gene- 
ral use. Near the kitchen was the bakery, with its 
vault-like ovens, and beyond this was a dark and de- 
solate place, a rude outhouse. From the centre of it 
rose substantial and blackened posts, on which, at 
seven or eight feet from the ground, was placed a 
rough-hewn platform of wood. Leaning against this 
was a ladder, the only method of reaching it. The 
platform was a bed-room. When any way-worn pil- 
grims arrived at Troitsa, they were invited to sit 
down on some rude benches by the wall outside of 
the outhouse, and here, beneath a plain shelter of 



THE HOSPITAL. 331 

boards, they were furnished with soup and rye "bread 
from the kitchen. If they desired to stay for a night 
or two to rest, or were unwell, they could climb up 
the ladder, and pass the night on the platform, where 
were some sacks. It was a primitive hospitality ; but 
then beggars must not be choosers. If the pilgrim 
was really ill, he was put into the hospital. One 
poor fellow was sitting by the wall, waiting for his 
soup, and was going to pass the night up on the plat- 
form. However rough this bedroom might be it was 
not inferior, methought, to the general and much 
sought-for bedrooms for the u casuals " in our Lon- 
don refuges. Anyhow, at Troitsa the " casual " had 
good food and fresh air. 

A little farther on was the hospital. There were 
two or three rooms, all clean and fresh, and but few 
sick in them. As we looked into the lower room, on 
the ground-floor, the monk said — " The people here 
are all dying ; when they get very bad upstairs, and 
there is nothing more to be done for them, they are 
brought down here, and they never go out again." 

There were no curtains to the low pallet beds, 
which were ranged along the wall, clean and tidy. 
In two or three of these were distinguishable the 
human forms beneath the grey coverlets, still and 



332 FOUND DEAD. 

composed, the heads covered, preparing for death. 
The silent chamber, empty of everything except these 
beds and their voiceless tenants, struck one's mind 
painfully as the very impersonation of abandonment. 
Here were no kindly nurses hovering about with 
cordials, as in the SheremaytiefF Hospice in Moscow. 
Belonging to no one, without a tie to any of those 
among whom he had passed his life, the monk, a 
solitary being, his inner life and its sorrows a secret 
to all but his Maker, he comes here at last, to this 
still chamber and this pallet bed, and without one 
word of sympathy for his ear, without a claim on any 
one for affection, he shuts out the world, and conceals 
the eyes which no one cares to close, beneath the 
coverlet, and passes away. 

" They are often found dead in the morning," said 
the monk with us. " A brother comes round at inter- 
vals and lifts the coverlet during the day, and finds 
them gone, but they usually die at night." 

We asked to see some of the rooms or cells of the 
brothers. These appeared to be scattered all over 
the enclosure in the numerous buildings. Passing 
the hospital we went up a broad flight of steps on to 
the paved and covered walk by the outer wall. What 
a grand promenade it was ! We entered it at an angle, 



THE GREEK MONK. 333 

and here on one hand it stretched away for two or 
three hundred yards, level and orderly, and shaded 
and cool, and then on the other hand was a similar 
fine and imposing length of way. 

" In the worst winters," said the monk, " when the 
whole country is white and deep in snow, this is al- 
ways as it is now ; a little snow blows in sometimes 
through the battlements, but it is soon swept away." 

As we walked along it some windows of buildings 
beyond the grassy enclosure were open, and in one 
of these was a canary in a cage'. There were books, 
too, on shelves, and a cheerful coloured paper on the 
walls. I pointed these out to the monk. 

" Oh ! yes," he said, " some of the brethren are fond 
of having birds, and they furnish their rooms com- 
fortably if they choose to do so." 

The Greek monk is not devoted to absolute poverty 
and self-denial. This man, with his books, and his 
canary, and his Moscow furniture, and with a certain 
liberty to come and go, no doubt found in this life 
a charm, as do their Roman brethren, those holy 
Sybarites, the Benedictines, at La Cava near Naples, 
in their luxurious monastery. There is a difference 
in monk life — a difference between the fanatic in his 
subterranean cell at Gethsemane, two miles off, and 



334 AN OUBLIETTE. 

this man fond of books and the music and companion- 
ship of a canary. What friends, methought, that man 
and the bird must be, for between them there can 
be sympathy and affection. 

There was a tower in the angle of the broad walk. 
We went up the winding stair and found at the top 
storey a wide circular space, from the centre of which 
rose some massive brickwork, the summit of the round 
tower. 

" That is closed up now," said the monk, pointing 
to a door, " it is nailed up ; there is a room in there, 
and all below it to the bottom is hollow. John the 
Terrible used to condemn some of those who offended 
him to be sent to Troitsa, and they were kept here as 
in a prison. Sometimes one would be brought and 
put into that room, and the door locked — presently 
the floor would sink, and then the man went down 
to his death." 

It was an oubliette. So that Troitsa, the Holy 
Troitsa, was not sacred in the eyes of the Terrible 
Ivan. Around this bloodstained central place, this 
wall, were rooms of the monks, a broad passage run- 
ning between the brickwork and the cells. Most of 
the doors, five or six, were closed; their tenants were 
in them, and we could not disturb their privacy. But 



THE monks' room. 335 

one was ajar, and our guide, peeping in, beckoned us 
to enter, as the monk was gone out. It was a con- 
siderable room, perhaps sixteen feet long, but of 
irregular shape, being narrow at the doorway, and 
broad by the window, which looked out over the 
country from a considerable height — a cheerful airy 
room. The furniture was plain and neat — a pallet 
bed, a couple of chairs, a picture or two of saints, a 
table, and some books. It had a homely habitable 
look. These rooms, however, were not built for 
telling secrets, for they were, in fact, only thin wooden 
compartments, occupying the outer side of the large 
circular platform, and as the wooden partitions were 
only about eight feet high, there was no lack of circu- 
lation of air, nor of cold in a Russian winter, while 
every slightest movement — the rustle of a cloak, 
the creak of a chair, or the turning of the page of a 
boob — could be heard by the neighbours through the 
thin boarding or over the top. Secrets ! Probably 
every poor monk has a secret — down in his heart — the 
secret of his life, which he never tells and never 
wishes to tell to anyone, whether the boundaries of 
his cell are wooden boards or brick walls. 

We went along the covered walk ; and here and 
there we met persons — now some solitary papa walk- 



336 THE ECCLESIASTICAL ACADEMY. 

ing slowly and absorbed in his book, his long hair 
curling down over his brown silk dress ; and then a 
monk, sauntering idly along by the embattled wall, 
now and then leaning in one of the embrasures 
and gazing long and fixedly out into the country — 
perhaps with mind and heart far away. Then we 
came by the palace, built by Peter, now occupied by 
the Ecclesiastical Academy, and the principal seat of 
priestly instruction in Russia. This large and hand- 
some building stands just within the great wall, and 
so here were knots of two and three students, young 
men of the upper classes, in eager conversation as 
they walked along the shaded way. More than once 
we came upon a solitary student, doubled up in an 
embrasure with book in hand — his place of study for 
the nonce. Then we met little parties of visitors to 
Troitsa like ourselves, and also monks enjoying, 
apparently, a constitutional walk. 

Thus the Troitsa convent is a little world in itself. 
There are gorgeous buildings and decaying offices ; 
there are splendours of hoarded wealth and the plain- 
ness of poverty; imposing ceremonies of religion, and 
careful money-making ; treasuries and shops ; students 
and idlers; learning and ignorance; men of grand pre- 
sence, noble stature, and abounding health, glori- 



DYING ALONE AND UNCARED FOR. 337 

ous in youth and beauty ; and there are poor decrepit 
creatures, without hope or object in this world, dying, 
alone and uncared for, without a friend to close their 
eyes. 



z 



338 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Administration of Justice— Bribery in some cases Discountenanced — 
The Bureaucracy — Causes of the Low Morale of Public Officials- 
Insufficient Salaries — No Public Opinion— Frequenters of the Hotel 
Dusaux — A Sign of the Times — The Levelling Process — Language 
of the Upper Classes —Intolerance at the Opera — Native Literature 
— The Works of Lermontoff, Pouchkine, &c — Growth of National 
Sentiment — Serfdom and Freedom — New State of Things — Kise of a 
National History, Drama, Fiction, and Music. 

/~\NE day I was sitting at dinner in one of the pub- 



lie rooms of my hotel with a party of Russian 
gentlemen. The subject of conversation was the ad- 
ministration of justice in the courts of law. I ob- 
served that I had that day visited the public courts in 
the Kremlin, but unfortunately had found them closed, 
as it was holiday-time. One of those present said he 
should have been glad if I could have witnessed some 
of their procedure, " for," said he, " we are but be- 
ginners in anything like law, whereas you English 
are a people of law. We are but children, and have 
everything to learn." 




REFUSAL OF BRIBES. 339 

I said I had heard that there was a great desire on 
the part of the magistracy at Moscow to act impar- 
tially in their office, and that one proof was they were 
refusing all bribes. 

" We are getting on," he said ; " some of our new 
magistrates are really good men ;" and he related a 
case within his own knowledge where a gentleman, 
thinking he could bribe the magistrates as in the olden 
times, had been himself heavily fined for the offence 
of offering the bribe, and kept under durance till the 
fine was paid, immensely to his astonishment. 

Another of the party observed on this, that though 
there were cases where this might be true, they were 
exceptional ; the old state of things hanging about our 
people and offices too much yet. And he went on 
to say, " My opinion is that if a man were to kill ano- 
ther here in the open daylight in the middle of this 
street there would be a tremendous hubbub about it 
for a time, but if he had a clever lawyer and ^plenty 
of money he would escape all punishment." 

On my subsequently mentioning this to an acquaint- 
ance, his remark was, 

"I have no doubt he was right, for the bureaucracy 
iof this country are so wretchedly paid by the Go- 
vernment, that they must get money somehow inde- 

z2 



340 FKEQUENTERS OF THE HOTEL DUSAUX. 

pendently of their office to support their expensive 
way of living ; and they must be more than men who 
would refuse a heavy sum to let off any man, what- 
ever he had done. Besides/' he added, " what pub- 
lic opinion is there to bear on them? — none; and 
what public spirit in favour of real justice and law 
can there be in a people hitherto corrupted in an ex- 
treme degree by serfdom, by bribery in all the offices 
of state, by general profligacy, and the all but irre- 
sponsible power of the nobles over their serfs ? The 
spirit, the habits of a people cannot change rapidly 
from bad to good." 

Presently the subject of conversation changing at 
the dinner table, I observed two men enter the room 
and after much whispering together and looking 
round in a timid and hesitating manner, seat them- 
selves at a neighbouring table. These rooms of the 
Hotel Dusaux were as a rule frequented only by per- 
sons of a certain class. They were either officers of 
the Army, Russian gentlemen and their wives, mer- 
chants of the upper grades, or foreigners and tra- 
vellers, but all of them having the air and manners of 
people of a certain social standing. But these two men 
were different. They were of spare and tall figure, with 
thin faces and pointed features, and their dress was 



A SIGN OF THE TIMES. 341 

that of the Russian native of the smaller shopkeeper 
class, the long black boots, black waistcoat, and 
long loose upper coat marking them as of that con- 
dition. Their manners and appearance were so un- 
usual in these rooms that I pointed them out to one 
of my neighbours. 

" What are those men ?" said I. 

He turned, looked long and steadily at them, and 
then said, 

" That is a sign of the times we are living in. This 
is the first time I have ever seen men of that class in 
these rooms. A short time ago those men would 
not have dared to come here, but now the citizen 
class are pushing themselves up where they never 
were before ; and it is very natural, for they are free 
to do as they like, and many of them are rich." 

" You are only beginning to do here," said I, 
" what we have been doing for years ; and levelling is 
going on in all countries rapidly." 

" Well," said Count L , " I think it is all right 

that people should be free ; and though sometimes 
there are things which are novel and which rather 
shock one's old habits, yet I am sure this change is all 
for the best." 

I observed that there was one thing which much 



342 LANGUAGE OF THE SALON. 

surprised me, that whereas in England we had 
learned that in the upper Russian society the lan- 
guage of the country was rarely if ever spoken among 
themselves, and that French and German, but princi- 
pally the former, were the common languages of the 
salon, this seemed by no means to be the case, all the 
Russians, frequenters of these rooms, speaking their 
native language. 

"It is quite true," he replied, " there is a great 
change within these few years in this respect. For- 
merly it was considered fashionable to converse in 
French, and people even pretended not to know 
much of Russian ; it was considered low and com- 
mon, the language of the serfs ; but now we all talk 
Russ everywhere — in fact, we are becoming national. 
Hitherto we have been almost like two peoples, mas- 
ters and serfs, with different languages, different habits, 
different ideas ; but now we are becoming one people 
in all ways, and in some things we are getting to be 
intensely national." 

I alluded to a new opera being played at the great 
Moscow theatre, in which much of the action takes 
place in Poland, and of which the music was Russian, 
and the performers also natives. 

" Ah ! yes," said he, "a little time ago, when that 



A FURIOUS NATIONALITY. 343 

piece first came out, the audience were so enraged at 
the sight of the Polish costumes on the stage that 
they hissed and shouted and would not allow the 
opera to go on ; and they positively afterwards in- 
sisted that the Polish scenes should be omitted, which 
of course spoiled the whole thing. Now they have 
become a little more tolerant, and allow it all to be 
played through ; but a few years ago the whole piece 
would have been played as a matter of course, the 
Poles unnoticed. Now there is a new spirit alive." 

I said I thought they avenged themselves for this 
toleration by their national anthem at the end — five 
times had the people called for that anthem on the 
previous night when I had been present. 

" A furious nationality," said the Count, laughing. 

Another of the party alluded to the native litera- 
ture, which was beginning to be more appreciated 
generally in the country. 

" Till lately," he said, " the common reading in 
families has been of books from France, England, 
and Germany, and of these there were so many 
and so good, that few cared to inquire if there was 
any native literature. If anyone called attention to 
Gogol or LermontofF, people would say, ' Oh ! it is 
only Russian,' — the language and the writers in it 



344 NATIVE LITERATURE. 

were equally contemned ; but now we find that there 
are writers of fiction in Russ besides the historians 
Karamzin and SoloviefF, that their productions are 
fully equal, in many respects, in imagination and in 
power of detail, to those of many French and English 
writers, though, of course, inferior to your best." 

I said that I had found at a library in the town a 
number of the works of native authors translated into 
French — works of considerable ability in the world 
of fiction, by authors such as Tourgueneff and Pouch- 
kine, and others. 

" If you have not read a work by Pouchkine," said 
one of the party, " called ' A Society of Gentlefolks 
in the Country,' you should get it ; it made quite a 
sensation in Russian society when it appeared, about 
five or six years ago. No one knew that we had a 
writer capable of such a production until it appeared." 

I had not then read the story mentioned. Various 
other authors were named — Stcherbina, KrilofF, and 
GriboyedofF. All this was only further proof of the 
growing sentiment of nationality among the Russian 
people — of a growing appreciation of native talent. 

So long as there existed the great division of the 
nation into master and slave, each body using in a 
manner a different language, and therefore conveying 



SEEFDOM AND FREEDOM. 345 

along two distinct streams different ideas on life and 
society, there could grow up no real community of 
feeling or opinion between these two great bodies. 
Whatever some authors may have written with the 
attempt to show that the Russian serf was not a 
slave, and that his dependence secured to him 
more advantages than would his liberty, yet, of 
course, in the present condition of thought in the 
world, it is but waste of words to show that all 
such argument is a fallacy. It is but waste of words 
to assert that the few small and merely physi- 
cal advantages to the person under slavery or serf- 
dom, coupled with degradation of mind, are worth 
more than all the higher and mental advantages of 
freedom, with all its inspiring power, its originality of 
thought, and its energy of action. Again it is but a 
waste of words to show that a despotic power of man 
over man is not an injury to the moral nature of 
the master as of the slave ; for as a limited power 
obliges the master to balance with himself the 
question of justice and equity, and so allows these 
higher sentiments to find entrance into his mind 
and to purify and strengthen it even by their very 
presence, so an unlimited power appeals by its na- 
tural influence to the lower passions, and not to the 



346 NATIONAL PROGRESS. 

higher sentiments — to the passion of fear and the love 
of dominating, to selfishness and to force, and not to the 
sentiment of charity, of moderation, and of considera- 
tion for others. 

But with the new state of things has burst into ac- 
tion a new appreciation of Russian thought, of Rus- 
sian ability, of Russian nationality. Thus a national 
drama and a national music are taking their place as 
parts of the great social life of the country, and works 
of history, such as those by Solovieff and Polevoi ; of 
drama, such as those of Ozeroff; and of fiction, as by 
Pouchkine and Lermontoff, are asserting their claim 
to an honourable place for the Russian language in 
the literature of Europe. 



THE END. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY MACDONALD AND TUGWELL, BLENHEIM HOUSE. 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 

LIST OF NEW WORKS. 



SPIRITUAL WIVES. By W. Hepworth Dixon, 

Author of ' New America,' &c. Fourth Edition, with A New 
Preface. 2 vols. 8vo. With Portrait of the Author, engraved by 
W. Holl. 30s. bound. 

"Mr. Dixon has treated his subject in a philosophical spirit, and in his usual 
graphic manner. There is, to our thinking, more pernicious doctrine in one chap- 
ter of some of the sensational novels which find admirers in drawing-rooms and 
eulogists in the press than in the whole of Mr. Dixon's interesting work." — Examiner. 

" No more wondrous narrative of human passion and romance, no stranger con- 
tribution to the literature of psychology than Mr. Dixon's book has been published 
since man first began to seek after the laws that govern the moral and intellectual 
life of the human race. To those readers who seek in current literature the plea- 
sures of intellectual excitement we commend it as a work that affords more enter- 
tainment than can be extracted from a score of romances. But its power to amuse 
is less noteworthy than its instructiveness on matters of highest moment. ' Spiritual 
Wives' will be studied with no less profit than interest." — Morning Post. 

" The subject of ' Spiritual Wives' is full of deep interest. If we look at it simply 
as a system, it is replete with scenes which cannot be surpassed even in fiction. 
Regarded from a social point of view, it appears a gigantic evil, and threatens 
society with disintegration. Examined carefully, as a phenomenon of religious life, 
for as such it must be considered, it presents features of great psychological signi- 
ficance, and will be found to illustrate some important truths. Mr. Hepworth 
Dixon's book will be found an interesting exposition of the whole subject of ' Spi- 
ritual Wives.' He has obtained his information from the best sources, sought and 
secured interviews with the chiefs of the movement, and the inner circle of their 
supporters at home and abroad The facts have been most carefully collected, and 
are collated with great skill and care. Bnt what strikes us most forcibly is the 
power and reticence with which the difficult and delicate topic is discussed in all 
its bearings. The object which the author proposed to himself at the outset was 
to write a chapter for the history necessary to illustrate the spiritual passions of 
man. And this intention has been fulfilled with unusual ability. The style of the 
work is charming. Some of the sketches of character are traced with the highest 
artistic skill. The scenes introduced into the narrative are full of life and glowing 
with colour. In short, there is nothing to desire as regards the manner in which 
Mr. Dixon has treated his subject. Regarded from a literary point of view, the 
work is eminently successful." — Globe. 

" Public curiosity is thoroughly awakened on the subject of Spiritual Wives, and 
these two handsome volumes, written in the most vivid, animated, and pictorial of 
styles, will tell us all that we need know about them. It seems almost superfluous 
to say that the moral of the book, from first to last, is just what one might expect 
from a cultivated and high-principled English author. Mr. Dixon has treated a 
difficult and delicate subject with great refinement and judgment, and he has cer- 
tainly produced a book which is calculated to absorb the attention of every intelli- 
gent reader who opens it." — Star. 

" Thousands of readers have been attracted to ' Spiritual Wives ' by the brilliant 
style in which the theories and facts are put forward. The public will be no longer 
ignorant of these movements, which stir society like the first throes of an earth- 
quake. Mr. Dixon accounts with perfect justice for the origin and motives of the 
singular movement. In these unhappy Ebelians and blasphemous Agapemonites 
we are bidden to discover the unquiet and disordered result of great and earnest 
changes in social view." — Daily Telegraph. 

"We recommend to thoughtful persons the perusal of these volumes as contain- 
ing many pregnant reflections on the history of the movements which they chroni- 
cle. A lithe and sinewy style, and a picturesque knowledge of the most attractive 
literary forms, enable Mr. Dixon to make his subject at once interesting and in- 
structive. The tone of the composition is refined and pure to a degree. There is 
uot a coarse line or a coarse thought throughout the two volumes." — London Review. 

"The most remarkable work of the season — a book which all thoughtful men will 
read with absorbed interest, and which will scarcely startle more readers than it 
charms. The literary merit of the book is high; the style the author's best." — Leader. 

" Mr. Dixon writes with rare ability, often eloquently, always enthrallingly, in 
these two volumes about ' Spiritual Wives." — Sun. 



1 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORK S — Continued. 

NEW AMERICA. By William Hepworth Dixon. 

SEVENTH EDITION. 2 vols, demy 8vo, with Illustrations. 30s. 

" The author of this very interesting book having penetrated through the plains 
and mountains of the Far West into the Salt Lake Valley, here gives us an ex- 
cellent account of the Mormons, and some striking descriptions of the scenes 
which he saw, and the conversations which he held with many of the Saints during 
his sojourn there. For a full account of the singular sect called the Shakers, of 
their patient, loving industry, their admirable schools, and their perpetual inter- 
course with the invisible world, we must refer the reader to this work. Mr. Dixon 
has written thoughtfully and well, and we can recall no previous book on American 
travel which dwells so fully on these much vexed subjects." — Times. 

" Mr. Dixon's book is the work of a keen observer, and it appears at an oppor- 
tune season. Those who would pursue all the varied phenomena of which we 
have attempted an outline will have reason to be grateful to the intelligent and 
lively guide who has given them such a sample of the inquiry. During his resi- 
dence at Salt Lake City Mr. Dixon was able to gather much valuable and interesting 
information respecting Mormon life and society: and the account of that singular 
body, the Shakers, from his observations during a visit to their chief settlement at 
Mount Lebanon, is one of the best parts of Mr. Dixon's work." — Quarterly Review. 

" There are few books of this season likely to excite so much general curiosity as 
Mr. Dixon's very entertaining and instructive work on New America. None are 
more nearly interested in the growth and development of new ideas on the other 
side of the Atlantic than ourselves. The book is really interesting from the first 
page to the last, and it contains a large amount of valuable and curious informa- 
tion." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" In these very entertaining volumes Mr. Dixon touches upon many other fea- 
tures of American society, but it is in his sketches of Mormons, Shakers, Bible- 
Communists, and other kindred associations, that the reader will probably And most 
to interest him. We recommend every one who feels any interest in human na- 
ture to read Mr. Dixon's volumes for themselves." — Saturday Review. 

" We have had nothing about Utah and the Mormons so genuine and satisfactory 
as the account now given us by Mr. Dixon, but he takes also a wider glance at the 
Far West, and blends with his narrative such notes of life as he thinks useful aids 
to a study of the newest social conditions — germs of a society of the future. There 
is not a chapter from which pleasant extract might not be made, not a page that does 
not by bright studies of humanity in unaccustomed forms keep the attention alive 
from the beginning to the end of the narrative." — Examiner. 

"Intensely exciting volumes. The central interest of the book lies in Mr.Dixon's 
picture of Mormon society, and it is for its singular revelations respecting Brigham 
Young's people, and the Shakers and Bible Communists, that nine readers out 
of every ten will send for an early copy of this strange story. Whilst Mr. Dixon 
speaks frankly all that he knows and thinks, he speaks it in a fashion that will 
carry his volumes into the hands of every woman in England and America." — Post. 

"A book which it is a rare pleasure to read — and which will most indubitably bo 
read by all who care to study the newest phenomena of American life." — Spectator. 

" Mr. Dixon's ' New America ' is decidedly the cleverest and most interesting, as 
it has already proved the most successful, book published this season." — Star. 

"Mr. Dixon has written a book about America having the unusual merit of being 
at once amusing and instructive, true as well as new. Of the books published this 
season there will be none more cordially read" — Macmillan's Magazine. 

" Mr. Dixon's book is a careful, wise, and graphic picture of the most prominent 
social phenomena which the newest phases of the New World present. The narra- 
tive is full of interest from end to end, as well as of most important subjects for 
consideration. No student of society, no historian of humanity, should be without 
it as a reliable and valuable text-book on New America." — All the Year Round. 

"In these graphic volumes Mr. Dixon sketches American men and women, 
sharply, vigorously and truthfully, under every aspect. The smart Yankee, the 
grave politician, the senate and the stage, the pulpit and the prairie, loafers and 
philanthropists, crowded streets, and the howling wilderness, the saloon and boudoir, 
with woman everywhere at full length — all pass on before us in some of the most 
vivid and brilliant pages ever written." — Dublin University Magazine. 



2 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSRS. HUEST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 

THE LIFE AND COREESPONDENCE OF 

THOMAS SLINGSBY DUNCOMBE, late M.P. for Finsburt. 
By his Son, Thomas H. Duncombe. 2 vols, demy 8vo, with Portrait. 
30s. bound. 

" These volumes contain much racy anecdote, and some startling disclosures 
which will ruffle politicians. Duncombe was at the same time a darling of May 
Fair, a leader of fashion, a man of many pleasures, and a hard-working Member 
of Parliament who delighted to be called a Tribune of the People. Few men of 
his time were of greater mark amongst the notabilities of London than this 
Patrician Radical, who was Count d'Orsay's 'Dear Tommy,' and Finsbury's 
' Honest Tom Duncombe.' Mr. Duncombe's singular career is ably handled by his 
only child. He tells us much that the world did not know concerning his remark- 
able sire." — Athenceum. 

"Mr. Duncombe's biography is enriched by a store of various anecdote relating 
to most of the public characters with whom he came in contact during his parlia- 
mentary life, and is replete with reminiscences of the beau monde and amusing 
anecdotes of the fashionable celebrities with whom he habitually associated." — Post. 

" These volumes will gratify much curiosity and convey to all readers a fair idea 
of ' Honest Tom Duncombe's' lif e and political labours. Mr. Duncombe's character 
and position were so unique that a faithful portraiture, chiefly derived from his 
own papers, cannot but be both interesting and instructive. The writer discrimin- 
ates amongst his fashionable dramatis personae with sufficient judgment, and there 
is great interest in the sketches, probably based upon Mr. Duncombe's conversa- 
tions, of the leaders of society in his early days. The book is an honest one, and 
will assist all who read it with judgment to master the springs of political action 
here and on the Continent from the Reform Bill downwards." — Star. 

" The life of a man who was at once an aristocrat of the first water, a patron of 
the turf and the drama, a leader of fashion, and yet a Radical of Radicals, and the 
patron of every distinguished or undistinguished individual who either had a 
grievance, or who chose to quarrel with the powers that be, in any part of the 
world, may well be supposed to have much about it that must be worth telling ; 
and when, as is here the case, it is told with tact and spirit, and plentifully inter- 
mixed with anecdotes, it furnishes one of the most interesting books of the season. 
The history of the various Whig Administrations, from Earl Grey's in 1830, to the 
return of Sir Robert Peel to power in 1841, receives plentiful illustration from these 
volumes ; and those who are inclined for another sort of reading, will find the 
notabilities of fashion and the green-room sketched to the life, from Lady Blessing- 
ton and Count d'Orsay, to Mercandotti and Vestris ; so that there is information 
and amusement combined for all. Mr. Duncombe deserved to have his life written, 
and his son has done it well." — United Service Mag. 

" A more interesting book than this life of Mr. Duncombe has not appeared for 
many years, or one more full of reminiscences of stirring incidents, both social and 
political." — Observer. 

MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF 

FIELD-MARSHAL VISCOUNT COMBERMERE, G.G.B., &c. 
From his Family Papers. By the Right Hon. Mary Viscountess 
Gombermere and Capt. W. W. Knollys. 2 v. 8vo, with Portraits. 30s. 
" The gallant Stapleton Cotton, Viscount Combermere, was one of those men 
who belong to two epochs. He was a soldier, actively engaged, nearly ten years 
before the last century came to its troubled close ; and he was among us but as 
yesterday, a noble veteran, gloriously laden with years, laurels, and pleasant re- 
miniscences. To the last this noble soldier and most perfect gentleman took 
cheerful part in the duties and pleasures of life, leaving to an only son an inherit- 
ance of a great name, and to a sorrowing widow the task of recording how the 
bearer of the name won for it all his greatness. This has been done, evidently as 
a labour of love, by Lady Combermere, and she has been efficiently assisted in the 
military details by Captain Knollys. Apart from the biographical and professional 
details, the volumes, moreover, are full of sketches of persons of importance or 
interest who came into connection with Lord Combermere." — Athenxum. 

3 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 

SAINTS AND SINNERS ; OR, IN CHURCH 

AND ABOUT IT. By Dr. Doran. 2 volumes large post 8vo. 
24s. bound. 

Contents :— The Magnates of the Old Church— The Old Folk of the Old Church- 
Life Eound St. Paul's Cross — Sceptre and Crosier — Throne and Pulpit — Ordination 
— Preferment — Congregations — Pews — Notes on Stray Sermons — Font, Altar, and 
Grave — Irregular Marriages — Long and Short Sermons — Texts and Church Stories 
— Style at Home — Titles and Dress — Sports and Pastimes — The Joy Songs of the 
Church — Eoyal, Military, Naval, Family, and Newgate Chaplains — Popular and 
Fashionable Churches — Fashionable Congregations — Country Clergymen — Hono- 
rarium—Slang in High Places — Axe and Crosier — The Pulpit and the Boards, &c. 

" This is by far Dr. Doran's best work. He has taken the humourist's view of 
our ecclesiastical history, and gossips with characteristic ability about the drolleries 
and eccentricities of the venerable order which in these later times has given us a 
fair proportion of sound scholars and good Christians. We congratulate him on 
the production of a book which abounds in comical stories about solemn matters, 
and yet is so pure of irreverence that of the laughter which is sure to ring out over 
its pages the loudest will be heard within country parsonages." — Athenaeum. 

"Few writers know so well as Dr. Doran how to make a lively, gossipy book* 
He has added another to his list of works of this description in ' Saints and Sinners. 
The book deals with men and things connected with our ecclesiatical organizations ' 
and especially with the Church of England. It is easy for anyone of ordinary ex" 
perience to understand what a mine of anecdote is to be found in such a field - 
Dr. Doran, however, has discovered lodes which were not within the common kern 
and has shown how rich they are in amusing stories. We have no hesitation in 
saying that these volumes are among the pleasantest and most amusing of the 
season." — Star. 

" An infinitely interesting and instructive work, worthy of the strongest com- 
mendation on the part of the critic, and the most effective patronage on the part of 
tbe public. Its pages are full of gossipping anecdotes of kings, bishops, priests, 
clergymen, and others connected with the Church." — Observer. 

" This work will maintain Dr. Doran's character as a most amusing writer, and 
greatly tend to increase his well-merited popularity." — Messenger. 

" These volumes make very pleasant reading, and opened at hazard at any mo- 
ment are pretty sure to provide matter for entertainment and information." — Sun. 

THE LIFE OF JOSIAH WEDGWOOD ; From 

his Private Correspondence and Family Papers, in the possession 
of Joseph Mater, Esq., P.S.A., Francis Wedgwood, Esq., 0. Dar- 
win, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., Miss Wedgwood, and other Original 
Sources. With an Introductory Sketch of the Art of Pottery in 
England. By Eliza Meteyard. Dedicated to the Right Hon. W. 
E. Gladstone. Complete in 2 vols. 8vo, with Portraits and 300 
other Beautiful Illustrations, elegantly bound. 
"An important contribution to the annals of industrial biography. Miss Mete- 
yard has executed a laborious task with much care and fidelity. The book is pro- 
fusely illustrated, and the illustrations deserve the highest praise. They are exe- 
cuted with extreme beauty. — Times. 

" A work that is indispensable to all who wish to know anything about English 
ceramic art and its great inventor. The volumes are in themselves marvels of de- 
corative and typographical skill. More beautifully printed pages, more creamy 
paper, and more dainty wood-cuts have seldom met our eyes." — Saturday Review. 
"An admirable, well-written, and most interesting book." — Athenseum. 



4 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORK S — Continued. 

AROUND THE KREMLIN; or, Pictures of 

Lite in Moscow. By G. T. Lowth, Author of " The Wanderer 
in Arabia," &c. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 

THROUGH SPAIN TO THE SAHARA. By 

Matilda Betham Edwards. Author of ' A Winter with the Swal- 
lows,' &c. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 

"Miss Edwards is an excellent traveller. She has a keen eye for the beautiful in 
nature and art, and in description her language has a polished and easy grace that 
reminds us of Eothen." — Saturday Review. 

"Miss Edwards' sketches are lively and original, and her volume supplies plea- 
sant reading.'" — Athenseum. 

" In these entertaining pages Miss Edwards tells us pleasantly and gracefully 
of her wanderings in Spain. All she writes is fresh and sparkling." — Examiner. 

" ' Through Spain to the Sahara' is the title of a new book from the pen of Miss 
M. Betham Edwards, whose ' Winter with the Swallows' excited no little interest 
by its vivid and entertaining sketches of Algiers. Her present work is mainly 
devoted to Spain ; and the reader will not fail to be attracted by the authoress's 
picturesque style and singular clearness of description. Visiting Burgos, Madrid, 
Toledo, Cordova, Malaga, Granada, and Gibraltar, she had ample opportunity of 
making herself acquainted with the splendid remains of Moorish and Gothic archi- 
tecture which are the glory of Spain, although that decaying nation has long lost 
the power to appreciate them. Crossing from Gibraltar to the French town of 
Nemours, she travelled through the province of Oran to the city of Algiers, touch- 
ing the Great Desert by the way. Li her closing chapters she gives a peep of 
colonial and military life in Algeria, and draws some pictures of the Arabs, both 
settled and nomadic, which will amply repay study." — Star. 



A TRIP TO THE TROPICS, AND HOME 

THROUGH AMERICA. By the Marquis of Lorne. Second 
Edition. 1 vol. 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 
" The best book of travels of the season." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
" The tone of Lord Lome's book is thoroughly healthy and vigorous, and his 
remarks upon men and things are well-reasoned and acute. As records of the 
fresh impressions left on the mind of a young tourist who saw much, and can give 
a pleasant, intelligent account of what he saw, the book is in every way satis- 
factory." — Times. 

"A pleasant record of travel in the Western Islands and the United States. Lord 
Lorne saw a good deal of society both in the South and in the North. His tone is 
good, without undue partisan feeling. We can offer him our congratulations on 
his first essay as a traveller and an author." — Athenseum. 

" Lord Lome's book is pleasantly written It is the unaffected narrative of a 
traveller of considerable impartiality and desire for information." — Saturday Review. 

" In no other book will the reader find a more correct and life-like picture of the 
places and persons visited by the Marquis of Lorne, and no where more frankness 
and truthfulness in the statement of facts and impressions." — Examiner. 

UNDER THE PALMS IN ALGERIA AND 

TUNIS. By the Hon. Lewis ^Vingfield. 2 vols, post 8vo, with 
Illustrations. 21s. 

" These are sterling volumes, full of entertainment and well stocked with reliable 
information." — Post. 

"Mr. Wingfield's entertaining work contains a good deal of information con- 
cerning the present state, political and social, of the people of Algeria, both native 
and colonial, and is very agreeably written, the style being easy, animated, and 
genial." — Daily News. 



5 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSES. HUEST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 

THE SPOETSMAN AND NATUEALIST IN 

CANADA. With Notes on the Natural History of the Game, 
Game Birds, and Fish of that country. By Major W. Ross King, 
F.R.G.S., F.S.A.S. 1 vol. super royal 8vo, Illustrated with beauti- 
ful Coloured Plates and Woodcuts. 20s. Elegantly bound. 

" Truthful, simple, and extremely observant, Major King has been able to throw 
much light upon the habits as well as the zoological relations of the animals with 
which he came in collision ; and his descriptions of the country, as well as of the 
creatures inhabiting it, are as bright and graphic as they are evidently correct." — 

Athenxum. 

" In ' The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada ' we have a full, true, and com- 
prehensive record of all the facts concerning American animals which the author 
was able in a three years' residence to collect. We have these facts in a goodly 
volume, splendidly illustrated, and with its contents so well arranged that a refer- 
ence to any description of bird, beast, or fish may be made almost instantly. It is 
an important contribution to Natural History, and a work the intending traveller 
will consult once and again, since it gives him the information he most needs, and 
finds least generally accessible. The book will take its position in the foremost 
rank of works of its class. The descriptions throughout are written by one who is 
a master of his subject, and who writes English such as few are able to equal. Of 
recent British travellers few can vie with its author in close observation of nature, 
and in those graces of style and scholarship which make the information con- 
tained in his volume as pleasant to obtain as it is valuable to preserve. In fact, 
since the works of Eliot Warburton and Kinglake, no book of travels with which 
we are acquainted has been written in a style more clear, forcible picturesque." — 
Sunday Times. 

LIFE IN A FEENCH CHATEAU. By Hubert 

E. H. Jerningham, Esq. Second Edition. 1 vol. post 8vo, with 
Illustrations. 10s. 3d. bound. 

" Mr. Jerningham' s attractive and amusing voiume will be perused with much 
interest." — Morning Post. 

" A thoroughly fresh and delightful narrative — valuable, instructive, and enter- 
taining." — United Service Magazine. 

" A readable, pleasant, and amusing book, in which Mr. Jerningham records his 
life among the denizens of the French Chateau, which extended its courtly hospi- 
tality to him, in a very agreeable and entertaining manner." — Court Journal. 

IMPEESSIONS OF LIFE AT HOME AND 

ABROAD. By Lord Eustace Cecil, M.P. 1 vol. 8vo. 

" Lord Eustace Cecil has selected from various journeys the points which most 
interested him, and has reported them in an unaffected style. The idea is a good 
one, and is carried out with success. We are grateful for a good deal of informa- 
tion given with unpretending good sense." — Saturday Review. 

A WINTEE WITH THE SWALLOWS IN 

ALGERIA. By Matilda Betham Edwards. 8vo, with Illustra- 
tions. 15s. 

"A pleasant volume; a genuine, graphic record of a time of thorough enjoy- 
ment." — Athenaeum. 

"A fresh and fascinating book, full of matter and beauty. It is one of the most 
instructive books of travel of the season, and one of the brightest. It would be diffi- 
cult to overpraise it." — Spectator. 

" A bright, blithe, picturesque, artistic book, full of colour and sunshine, and 
replete with good sense and sound observation. To the enthusiasm of the book a 
great portion of its beauty and its attraction are owing, but solid information and 
the reality of things in Algeria are never disguised in favour of the bright land to 
which the author followed the Swallows." — Post. 



6 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORK S — Continued. 



A BOOK ABOUT LAWYERS. By J. C. Jeaf- 

freson, Barrister- at-Law, author of ' A Book about Doctors,' &c. 

New, Revised, and Cheaper Edition. 2 vols, post 8vo. 24s. 
Principal Contents :— The Great Seal, Eoyal Portraits, The Practice of Sealing, 
Lords Commissioners, On Damasking, The Rival Seals, Purses of State, A Lady 
Keeper, Lawyers in Arms, The Devil's Own, Lawyers on Horseback, Chan- 
cellors' Cavalcades, Ladies in Law Colleges, York House, Powis House, 
Lincoln's Inn Fields, The Old Law Quarter, Loves of the Lawyers, The Three 
Graces, Rejected Addresses, Brothers in Trouble, Fees to Counsel, Retainers 
Special and General, Judicial Corruption, Gifts and Sales, Judicial Salaries, 
Costume and Toilet, Millinery, Wigs, Bands and Collars, Bags and Gowns, The 
Singing Barrister, Actors at the Bar, Political Lawyers, The Peers, Lawyers in 
the House, Legal Education, Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery, Lawyers and 
Gentlemen, Law French and Law Latin, Readers and Mootmen, Pupils in 
Chambers, Wit of Lawyers, Humorous Stories, Wits in Silk and Punsters in 
Ermine, Circuiters, Witnesses, Lawyers and Saints, Lawyers in Court and 
Society, Attorneys at Law, Westminster Hall, Law and Literature, &c. 

" ' A Book about Lawyers ' deserves to be very popular. Mr. Jeaffreson has 
accomplished his work in a very creditable manner. He has taken pains to collect 
information from persons as well as from books, and he writes with a sense of 
keen enjoyment which greatly enhances the reader's pleasure. He introduces us 
to Lawyerdom under a variety of phases — we have lawyers in arms, lawyers on 
horseback, lawyers in love, and lawyers in Parliament. We are told of their sala- 
ries and fees, their wigs and gowns, their jokes and gaieties. We meet them at 
home and abroad, in court, in chambers, and in company. In the chapters headed 
' Mirth,' the author has gathered together a choice sheaf of anecdotes from the days 
of More down to Erskine and Eldon." — Times. 

" These volumes will afford pleasure and instruction to all who read them, and 
they will increase the reputation which Mr. Jeaffreson has already earned by his 
large industry and great ability. We are indebted to him for about seven hundred 
pages, all devoted to the history and illustration of legal men and things. It is much 
that we can say for a book, that there is not a superfluous page in it.' — Athenseum. 

"The success of his 'Book about Doctors ' has induced Mr. Jeaffreson to write 
another book — about Lawyers. The subject is attractive. It is a bright string of 
anecdotes, skilfully put together, on legal topics -of all sorts, but especially in illus- 
tration of the lives of famous lawyers. Mr. Jeaffreson has not only collected a large 
number of good stories, but he has grouped them pleasantly, and tells them well. 
We need say little to recommend a book that can speak for itself so pleasantly. 
No livelier reading is to be found among the new books of the season."— 
Examiner. 

HISTORIC PICTURES. By A. Baillie Cochrane, 

M.P. 2 vols. 

" Mr. Baillie Cochrane has published two entertaining volumes of studies from 
history. They are lively reading. 'My aim,' he says, 'has been to depict events 
generally known in a light and, if possible, a picturesque manner.' Mr. Cochrane 
has been quite successful in carrying out this intention. The work is a study of the 
more interesting moments of history — what, indeed, the author himself calls it, 
'Historic Pictures.' " — Times. 

THE HON. GRANTLEY BERKELEY'S LIFE 

AND RECOLLECTIONS. Vols. III. and IV. completing the 
Work. 30s., bound. 
"A book unrivalled in its position in the range of modern literature." — Times. 
"A clever, freespoken man of the world, son of an earl with £70,000 a-year, who 
has lived from boyhood the life of a club-man, sportsman, and man of fashion, has 
thrown his best stories about himself and his friends, into an anecdotic autobiogra- 
phy. Of course it is eminently readable. Mr. Grantley Berkeley writes easily and 
well. The book is full of pleasant stories, all told as easily as if they were related 
at a club-window, and all with point of greater or less piquancy. "Spectator. 



7 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 



MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT ? S 
NEW WORKS— Continued. 

ENGLISH TRAVELLERS AND ITALIAN 

BRIGANDS : a Narrative of Capture and Captivity. By W. J. C. 
Moens. Second Edition. Revised with Additions. 2 vols., with 
Portrait and other Illustrations. 

" Mr. Moens had a bad time of it among the Italian Brigands. But his misfor- 
tunes are now to himself and to his friends a source of no little entertainment, and 
we can say for those who listen to his story that we have followed him in his 
adventures with pleasure. He tells his tale in a clear and simple style, and with 
that confident manliness which is not afraid to be natural." — The Times. 

TRAVELS IN FRANCE AND GERMANY IN 

1865 AND 1866 : Including a Steam Voyage down the Danube, 
and a Ride across the Mountains of European Turkey from Bel- 
grade to Montenegro. By Captain Spencer, author of ' Travels in 
Circassia,' &c. 2 vols. 

A JOURNEY FROM LONDON TO PERSE- 

POLIS; including WANDERINGS IN DAGHESTAN, GEORGIA, 
ARMENIA, KURDISTAN, MESOPOTAMIA, AND PERSIA. 
By J. Ussher, Esq., F.R.G.S. Royal 8vo, with numerous beautiful 
Coloured Illustrations. Elegantly bound. 

"This is a very interesting narrative. Mr. Ussher is one of the pleasantest com- 
panions we have met with for a long time. We have rarely read a hook of travels in 
which so much was seen so rapidly and so easily, and in which the scenery, the 
antiquities, and the people impressed the author's mind with such gentlemanly 
satisfaction. Mr. Ussher merited his success and this splendid monument of his 
travels and pleasant explorations." — Times. 

TRAVELS IN THE REGIONS OF THE 

AMOOR, and the Russian Acquisitions on the Confines of India 
and China. By T. W. Atkinson, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Author of 
" Oriental and Western Siberia." Dedicated, by permission, to 
Her Majesty. Royal 8vo, with Map and 83 Illustrations. 

A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THIRTEEN 

YEARS' SERVICE AMONGST THE WILD TRIBES OP 
KHONDISTAN, FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF HUMAN 
SACRIFICE. By Major-General John Campbell, C.B. 1 vol. 8vo, 
with Illustrations. 

TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF AN OFFI- 
CER'S WIFE IN INDIA, CHINA, AND NEW ZEALAND. 
By Mrs. Muter, Wife of Lieut.-Colonel D. D. Muter. 13th (Prince 
Albert's) Light Infantry. 2 vols. 

ADVENTURES AMONGST THE DYAKS OF 

BORNEO. By Frederick Boyle, Esq., F.R.G.S. 1 vol. 8vo. 

YACHTING ROUND THE WEST OF ENG- 
LAND. By the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange, B.A., of Exeter College, 
Oxford, R.T.Y.C. 1 vol. 8vo, Illustrated. 

ADVENTURES AND RESEARCHES among the 

ANDAMAN ISLANDERS. By Dr. Mouat, F.R.G.S., &c. 1 vol. 
demy 8vo, with Illustrations. 



8 



13, Great Marlborough Street. 

MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
NEW WORK S — Continued. 



CHARLIE YILLARS AT CAMBRIDGE. By 

G. L. Tottenham, Trinity College. 2 vols. 21s. 
Fkom the " Temes," April 9. — " There are many interesting and suggestive topics 
treated of in Mr. Tottenham's book. The author deserves credit for the fidelity 
with which he introduces to us the successive scenes of a university man's career. 
Many of his descriptions are given with a good deal of spirit. In one respect Mr. 
Tottenham possesses an advantage over Mr. Hughes. He describes Cambridge 
life, if not exactly as it is at the present moment, at any rate as it was very re- 
cently." 

" The author of ' Charlie Villars ' is a most interesting and amusing writer. 
Scholars and statesmen, dons and undergraduates, naval and military men, sports- 
men and turfites, amateurs and actors, will not leave 'Charlie Villars' when once 
they have commenced a perusal of his adventures ; and the gentler sex will take 
delight in it as a work of great power and undoubted talent, and one which must 
enchain their sympathies." — Court Journal. 

" ' Charlie Villars at Cambridge ' is agreed on all sides to be a trustworthy ac- 
count of life at that University." — Daily News. 

"This book abounds in sport of all kinds, and will please Old Trinity men im- 
mensely. Every page gives the reader an insight into Cambridge University life." 
— Bell's Life. 

LADY ARABELLA STUART'S LIFE AND 

LETTERS : including numerous Original and Unpublished Docu- 
ments. By Elizabeth Cooper. 2 vols., with Portrait. 21s. 

" The ' Life and Letters of Lady Arabella Stuart ' is an unusually good specimen 
of its class. Miss Cooper has really worked at her subject. She has read a good 
deal of MSS, and, what is better still, she has printed a good deal of what she has 
read. The book has a real and substantial historical value." — Saturday Review. 

MEMOIRS OF QUEEN HORTENSE, MOTHER 

OF NAPOLEON III. Cheaper Edition, in 1 vol. 6s. 
" A biography of the beautiful and unhappy Queen, more satisfactory than any we 
have yet met with" — Daily News. 

THE BEAUTIFUL IN NATURE AND ART. 

By Mrs. Ellis. Author of ' The Women of England,' &c. 1 vol. 

crown 8vo, with fine Portrait. 10s. 6d. 
" With pleasure her numerous admirers will welcome a new book by the popular 
authoress of ' The Women of England.' A very charming volume is this new work 
by Mrs. Ellis. Its aim is to assist the young students Of art in those studies and 
subjects of thought which shall enable them rightly to appreciate and realise that 
oft-quoted truth, 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' 'The Tnithfulness of Art,' 
' The Love of Beauty,' 'The Love of Ornament,' 'Early dawn of Art,' and various 
chapters of a kindred nature, are followed by others descriptive of ' Learning to 
Draw,' 'Imitation,' ' Light and Shadow,' 'Form,' 'Colour,' 'Lady's Work,' &c. The 
work will interest many fair readers." — Sun. 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. By Cardinal 

Wiseman. 1 vol. 8vo, 5s. 

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LIFE OF ADVEN- 
TURE. By William Stamer. 2 vols, with Portrait. 

BRIGAND LIFE IN ITALY. By Count Maffei. 

2 vols. 8vo. 



9 



THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 

PUBLISHED BY BLUEST & BLACKETT. 



ROBERT FALCONER. By George Mac Donald 

LL.D. Author of " Alec Forbes," &c. 3 vols. 

ENGLEWOOD HOUSE. 3 vols. 

COLONEL FORTESCUE'S DAUGHTER. By 

Lady Charles Thynne, Author of "Off the Line," &c. 3 vols. 

" This story places Lady Charles Thynne in the front rank of our female novelists. 
The absorbing interest of the work is most successfully sustained, and the charac- 
ters are depicted with admirable skill." — United Service Mag. 

" The interest of this story is unflagging, and its tone is pleasant and healthy. 
There is good character-drawing, and the plot is deeply interesting, and, so far as 
we know, entirely original in its treatment." — Star. 

FROM OLYMPUS TO HADES. By Mrs. For- 

rester, Author of " Fair Women." 3 vols. 

"A novel of no ordinary power and pathos, distinctive in its character and 
thoroughly original. It is a story that any woman or any man might well be 
proud to have written" — United Service Mag. 

"A novel of no ordinary ability. Its moral is excellent, and the plot is arranged 
with consummate skill The characters are very well drawn." — John Bull. 

THE COUNTESS'S CROSS. By Mrs. Egerton. 

3 vols. 

" The interest of this story never flags, the style is easy and natural ; the pictures 
of Northern Italy are sunny, fresh and true. The portraits are cleverly drawn." — 

Pall Mall Gazette. 

" Altogether this story is pretty, the writing very correct, the moral excellent, 
and the book readable. The characters are powerfully delineated.'' — Morning Post. 

DORA. By Julia Kavanagh. Author of Nathalie/ 

'Adele,' &c. 3 vols. 

" The whole story is unique in talent, interest, and charm." — Examiner. 

" Miss Kavanagh always writes things that are worth reading. In the present 
novel there are sketches of character, household interiors, bits of descriptive life 
which are charming." — Athenaeum. 

"A charming story, most charmingly written, full of incidents and full of charac- 
ter. This delightful and enthralling narrative is, in many respects, the happpiest 
effusion of Miss Kavanagh's imagination." — Sun. 

COUNTRY COTERIES. By Lady Chatterton. 

" Lady Chatterton has given us a clever and amusing novel. There is enough of 
real life and society to make the characters natural, and to give the book the zest 
of gossip about neighbours with whom we are personally acquainted ' Country 
Coteries ' is intended to amuse a leisure hour, and it is just the book calculated to 
do this pleasantly and welL" — Athenseum. 

" A remarkably clever and amusing story. The plot is intricate and ingenious, 
the style lively and humourous. "—Post. 

MORTIMER'S MONEY. By S. Russell Whitney. 

" This story is deeply interesting. The plot is natural and probable, the dialogue 
lively and spirited" — United Service Mag. 
"A well told story, of no ordinary interest." — John Bull. 

10 



THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS, 

PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 



A NOBLE WOMAN. By J. C. Jeaffreson, 

Author of " Live it Down," &c. Second Edition. 3 vols. 

"The book now before us owes its existence to good, honest work, and it has 
other merits also. In his story of ' A Noble Woman ' Mr. Jeaffreson has been con- 
tent to depend for success upon the charm which attaches to a series of pictures 
representing pleasant subjects treated in an artistic style. Many of the descriptive 
passages in the book are excellent, and there is real humour in the story as well as 
real pathos." — Saturday Review. 

"Mr. Jeaffreson's present work is a very pleasant book to read. It has the air 
of being a real narrative rather than a novel There is excellent portraiture of life 
in an English county town. The careers of the two men who are the chief per- 
sonages in the book are worked out to their natural end and admirably devised. 
The story has a healthy, genuine reality which makes it charming." — Athenaeum. 

"A masterly work of fiction. It is a truthful and carefully wrought out sketch 
of real life." — Daily News. 

MEG. By Mrs. Eiloart, Author of " The Curate's 

Discipline," &c. 3 vols. 

''This novel is a very good one." — Examiner. "Mrs. Eiloart' s writing is very 

clever." — Spectator. " A very clever and finely constructed story, full of human 

interest and overflowing with rich qualities of intellect and art, and mirthful, pa- 
thetic, and unwearying reading." — Post. " This story is everywhere well written. 

It is pathetic, it is humourous, it shows much originality."— Star. 

JEANIE'S QUIET LIFE. By the Author of < St. 

Olave's,' ' Alec's Bride,' &c. 3 vols. 

"This book is written in a very graceful manner, occasionally eloquent and 
pathetic. Many of the pictures of country life are very pretty, and some of the 
love scenes have a great deal of poetry in them. The book has a vitality which 
distinguishes the productions of but few contemporary novelists. The author has 
shown a real creative power, and has given us some perfectly new and original 
characters." — Saturday Review. 

OLD SIR DOUGLAS. By the Hon. Mrs. Norton, 

Author of ' Lost and Saved,' &c. Second Edition. 3 vols. 

" There is scarcely a chapter that could have been written by a common-place 
person, and the author's reflections are always worth reading. The incidents are 
powerfully and picturesquely told, and we are especially struck by the conception 
of Margaret Carmichael." — Times. 

" A thoroughly readable and wholesome work of fiction. It is a book that will 
satisfy the expectations of Mrs. Norton's many admirers." — Athenseum. 

TWO MARRIAGES. By the Author of 'John 

Halifax, Gentleman,' ' Christian's Mistake,' &c. 2 vols. 

" "We have no hesitation in affirming the ' Two Marriages' to be in many respects 
the very best book that the author has yet produced. Earely have we read a work 
written with so exquisite a delicacy, full of so tender an interest, and conveying so 
salutary a lesson." — British Quarterly Review. 

NORTHERN ROSES. By Mrs. Ellis, Author 

of ' The Women of England,' &c. 3 vols. 
" A very interesting, natural, and instructive story." — Post. 

RAYMOND'S HEROINE. Second Edition. 3 vols. 

" A clever and vigorous work. It is a book which deserves to be read, and it will 
be read with breathless interest." — Times. 

A HERO'S WORK. By Mrs. Duffus Hardy. 3 v. 

"Mrs. Hardy has written so well, that her book will please numerous readers 
who like to be addressed by a woman of good sense and refinement." — Times. 



11 



Sinter % (fepmal ^atanagje of °$)tx $|fajjestjr. 

Published annually, in One Vol., royal 8vo, with the Arms beautifully 
engraved, handsomely bound, with gilt edges, price 31s. 6c?. 

LODGE'S PEERAGE 

AND BARONETAGE, 

CORRECTED BY THE NOBILITY. 
THE THIRTY-SE VENTH EDITION FOB, 1868 IS NOW READY. 

Lodge's Peerage and Baronetage is acknowledged to be the most 
complete, as well as the most elegant, work of the kind. As an esta- 
blished and authentic authority on all questions respecting the family- 
histories, honours, and connections of the titled aristocracy, no work has 
ever stood so high. It is published under the especial patronage of Her 
Majesty, and is annually corrected throughout, from the personal com- 
munications of the Nobility. It is the only work of its class in which, the 
type being kept constantly standing, every correction is made in its proper 
place to the date of publication, an advantage which gives it supremacy 
over all its competitors. Independently of its full and authentic informa- 
tion respecting the existing Peers and Baronets of the realm, the most 
sedulous attention is given in its pages to the collateral branches of the 
various noble families, and the names of many thousand individuals are 
introduced, which do not appear in other records of the titled classes. For 
its authority, correctness, and facility of arrangement, and the beauty of 
its typography and binding, the work is justly entitled to the place it 
occupies on the tables of Her Majesty and the Nobility. 

LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS. 



Historical View of the Peerage. 

Parliamentary Boll of the House of Lords. 

English, Scotch, and Irish Peers, in their 
orders of Precedence. 

Alphabetical List of Peers of Great Britain 
and the United Kingdom, holding supe- 
rior rank in the Scotch or Irish Peerage. 

Alphabetical list of Scotch and Irish Peers, 
holding superior titles in the Peerage of 
Great Britain and the United Kingdom. 

A Collective list of Peers, in their order of 
Precedence. 

Table of Precedency among Men. 

Table of Precedency among Women. 

The Queen and the Koyal Family. 

Peers of the Blood BoyaL 

The Peerage, alphabetically arranged 

Families of such Extinct Peers as have left 
Widows or Issue. 

Alphabetical List of the Surnames of all the 
Peers. 



The Archbishops and Bishops of England, 

Ireland, and the Colonies. 
The Baronetage alphabetically arranged 
Alphabetical List of Surnames assumed by 

members of Noble Families. 
Alphabetical List of the Second Titles of 

Peers, usually borne by their Eldest 

Sons. 

Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
Dukes, Marquises, and Earls, who, hav- 
ing married Commoners, retain the title 
of Lady before their own Christian and 
their Husband's Surnames. 

Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
Viscounts and Barons, who, having 
married Commoners, are styled Honour- 
able Mrs. ; and, in case of the husband 
being a Baronet or Knight, Honourable 
Lady. 

Mottoes alphabetically arranged and trans- 
lated. 



"Lodge's Peerage must supersede all other works of the kind, for two reasons: first, it 
is on a better plan ; and secondly, it is better executed We can safely pronounce it to be 
the readiest, the most useful, and exactest of modern works on the subject." — Spectator. 
"A work which corrects all errors of former works. It is amostuseful publication." — Times. 

"A work of great value. It is the most faithful record we possess of the aristo- 
cracy of the day." — Post. 

" The best existing, and, we believe, the best possible peerage. It is the standard 
authority on the subject." — Herald. 

12 



NOW IN COURSE 01? PUBLICATION 

HURST AND BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF 

POPULAR MODERN WORKS, 

ILLUSTRATED BY MILLAIS, HOLMAN HUNT, LEECH, BIRKET FOSTER, 
JOHN GILBERT, TENNIEL, &c. 
Each in a single volume, elegantly printed, bound, and illustrated, price 5s. 



VOL. I. — SAM SLICK'S NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE. 

" The first volume of Messrs Hurst and Blackett's Standard Library of Cheap Editions 
forms a very good beginning to what will doubtless be a very successful undertaking. 
' Nature and Human Nature' is one of the best of Sam Slick's witty and humorous 
productions, and is well entitled to the large circulation which it cannot fail to obtain -in 
its present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines with the great recom- 
mendations of a clear, bold type, and good paper, the lesser, but attractive merits of 
being well illustrated and elegantly bound." — Post. 



VOL. II. — JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. 

" This is a very good and a very interesting work. It is designed to trace the career 
from boyhood to age of a perfect man— aChristian gentleman, and it abounds in incident 
both well and highly wrought. Throughout it is conceived in a high spirit, and written 
with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass freely from 
hand to hand as a gift book in many households." — Examiner. 

" The new and cheaper edition of this interesting work will doubtless meet with great 
success. Jolm Halifax, the hero of this most beautiful story, is no ordinary hero, and 
this his history is no ordinary book. It is a full-length portrait of a true gentleman, 
one of nature's own nobility. Jt is also the hist ory of a home, and a thoroughly English 
one. The work abounds in incident, and is full of graphic power and true pathos. 
It is a book that few will read without becoming wiser and better." — Scotsman. 



VOL. III.— THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. 

BY ELIOT WARBURTON. 

" Independent of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting 
information, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with 
which its descriptions are enlivened. Ainong its greatest and most lasting charms is 
its reverent and serious spirit." — Quarterly Review. 

"A book calculated to prove more practically useful was never penned than 'The 
Crescent and the Cross ' — a work which surpasses all others in its homage for the sub- 
lime and its love for the beautiful in those famous regions consecrated to everlasting 
immortality in the annals of the prophets, and which no other writer has ever de- 
picted with a pencil at once so reverent and so picturesque."— Sun. 



VOL. IV.— NATHALIE. BY JULIA KAVANAGH. 

" ' Nathalie ' is Miss Kavanagh's best imaginative effort. Its manner is gracious 
and attractive. Its matter is pood. A sentiment, a tenderness, are commanded by 
her which are as individual they are elegant." — Athenaeum. 

VOL. V.— A WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
" A book of sound counsel. It is one of the most sensible works of its kind, well- 
written, true-hearted, and altogether practical. Whoever wishes to give advice to a 
young lady may thank the author for means of doing so." — Examiner. 

VOL. VI.— ADAM GRAEME. BY MRS OLIPHANT. 

" A story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its admirable pic- 
tures of Scottish life and scenery. The author sets before us the essential attributes of 
Christian virtue, their deep and silent workings in the heart, and their beautiful mani- 
festationsin life, with adelicacy, power, and truth which can hardly be surpassed "—Post. 



HURST AND BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

(CONTINUED). 



VOL. VII.— SAM SLICK'S WISE SAWS 
AND MODERN INSTANCES. 

" We have not the slightest intention to criticise this book. Its reputation is made, 
and will stand as long as that of Scott's or Bulwer's Novels. The remarkable ori- 
ginality of its purpose, and the happy description it affords of American life and man 
ners, still continue the subject of universal admiration. To say thus much is to 
say enough, though we must just mention that the new edition forms a part of Messrs 
Hurst and Blackett's Cheap Standard Library, which has included some of the very 
best specimens of light literature that ever have been written."— Messenger. 



VOL. VIII. — CARDINAL WISEMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 
OF THE LAST FOUR POPES. 

"A picturesque book on Rome and its ecclesiastical sovereigns, by an eloquent Ro- 
man Catholic. Cardinal Wiseman has treated a special subject with so much geniality, 
that his recollections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most conscientiously op- 
posed to every ideaof human infallibility represented in Papal domination."— Athenceum. 

VOL. IX. A LIFE FOR A LIFE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

"In ' A Life for a Life ' the author is fortunate in a good subject, and has produced 
a work of strong effect."— A thenceum. 

VOL, X. — THE OLD COURT SUBURB. BY LEIGH HUNT. 

" A delightful book, that will be welcome to all readers, and most welcome to those 
who have a love for the best kinds of reading." — Examiner. 

" A more agreeable and entertaining book has not been published since Boswell pro- 
duced his reminiscences of Johnson." — Observer. 



VOL. XI.— MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS. 

"We recommend all who are in search of a fascinating novel to read this work for 
themselves. They will find it well worth their while. There are a freshness and ori- 
ginality about it quite charming."— Athenceum. 



VOL. XII. — THE OLD JUDGE. BY SAM SLICK. 

" The publications included in this Library have all been of good quality ; many give 
information while they entertain, and of that class the book before us is a specimen. 
The manner in which the Cheap Editions forming the series is produced deserves 
especial mention. The paper and print are unexceptionable ; there is a steel engraving 
in each volume, and the outsides of them will satisfy the purchaser who likes to see 
books in handsome uniform." — Examiner. 

VOL. XIII.— DARIEN. BY ELIOT WARBURTON. 

"This last production of the author of 'The Crescent and the Cross 'has the same 
elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands."— Globe. 

VOL. XIV.— FAMILY ROMANCE ; OR, DOMESTIC 
ANNALS OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 

BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, Ulster King of Arms. 

" It were impossible to praise too highly this most interesting book. It ought to be 
found on every drawing-room table. Here you have nearly fifty captivating romances 
with the pith of all their interest preserved in undiminished poignancy, and any one 
may be read in half an hour." — Standard. 

VOL. XV.— THE LAIRD OF NORLAW 

BY MRS OLIPHANT. 
The Laird of Norlaw fully sustains the author's high reputation."— Sunday Time*. 



HURST AND BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

(CONTINUED). 

VOL. XVI. — THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY. 

"We can praise MrsGretton's book as interesting, unexaggerated, and full of ,oppor- 
tunrj instruction." — The Times. 



VOL. XVII.— NOTHING NEW. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

•* 'Nothing New ' displays all those superior merits which have made 'John Halifax 
one of the most popular works of the day." — Post. 



VOL. XVIII. — FREER'S LIFE OF JEANNE D'ALBREl. 

" Nothing can be more interesting than Miss Freer's story of the life of -Jeanne 
D'Albret, and the narrative is as trustworthy as it is attractive."— Post. 



VOL. XIX— THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS." 

" "We know no novel of the last three or four years to equal this latest production of 
the popular authoress of ' Margaret and her Bridesmaids.' If asked to classify it, we 
should give it a place between ' John Halifax' and ' The Caxtons.' "—Herald. 



VOL. XX.— THE ROMANCE OF THE FORUM. 

BY PETER BURKE, Seegeant at Law. 

A work of singular interest, which can never fail to charm. The present cheap and 
elegant edition includes the true story of the Colleen Bawn." — Illustrated News. 

VOL. XXL— ADELE. BY JULIA KAVANAGH. 

" 'Adele' is the best work we have read by MissKavanagh; it is a charming story 
full of delicate character-painting." — Athenceum. 



VOL. XXII.— STUDIES FROM LIFE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
" These ' Studies from Life' are remarkable for graphic power and observation. The 
book will not diminish the reputation of theaccomplished author. "—/S'atfwrda^ Review. 

VOL. XXIII. — GRANDMOTHER'S MONEY. 

" "We commend 'Grandmother's Money' to readers in search of a good novel. The 
characters are true to human nature, the story is interesting."— Athenceum. 



VOL. XXIV.— A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS. 

BY J. C. JEAFFRESON, Esq. 

"A delightful book."— Athenceum. "A book to be read and re-read; fit for the study 
5 well as the drawing-room table and the circulating library."— Lancet. 



VOL. XXV.— NO CHURCH. 

" "We advise all who have the opportunity to read this book."— Athenceum. 

VOL. XXVI.— MISTRESS AND MAID. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

"A good wholesome book, gracefully written, and as pleasant to read as it is instruc- 
tive." — Athenceum. "A charming tale charmingly told." — Herald. 

VOL. XXVIL— LOST AND SAVED. BY HON. MRS NORTON 

" ' Lost and Saved ' will be read with eager interest. It is a vigorous novel."— Times. 
*A novel of rare excellence. It is Mrs Norton's best prose work."— Examiner. 



HURST AND BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 

(CONTINUED). 

VOL. XXVIII. — LES MISERA3LES. BY VICTOR HUGO. 

AUTHORISED COPYRIGHT ENGLISH TRANSLATION". 

" The merits of ' Les Miserables ' do not merely consist in the conception of it as a 
whole ; it abounds, page after page, with details of unequalled beauty. In dealing with 
all the emotions, doubts, fears, which go to make up our common humanity, M. Victor 
Hugo has stamped upon every page the hall-mark of genius." — Quarterly Review. 

VOL. XXIX.— BARBARA'S HISTORY. 

BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. 

"It is not often that we light upon a novel of so much merit ana. interest as 
' Barbara's History.' It is a work conspicuous for taste and literary culture. It is a 
very graceful and charming book, with a well-managed story, clearly-cut characters, 
and sentiments expressed with an exquisite elocution. It is a book which the world 
will like. This is high praise of a woric of art, and so we intend it." — Times. 



VOL. XXX.— LIFE OF THE REV. EDWARD IRVING. 

BY MRS OLIPHANT. 

"A good book on a most interesting theme." — Times. 

c: A truly interesting and most affecting memoir. Irving's Life ought to have a niche 
in every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives that will be fuller of in- 
struction, interest, and consolation." — Saturday Review. 

" Mrs Oliphant's Life of Irving supplies a long-felt desideratum. It is copious, 
earnest, and eloquent. Irving, as a man and as a pastor, is exhibited with many broad, 
powerful, and life-like touches, which leave a strong impression." — Edinburgh Review. 



VOL. XXXI.— ST OLAVE'S. 

. " This charming novel is the work of one who possesses a great talent for writing, as 
well as experience and knowledge of the world. ' St OlaveV is the work of an artist. 
The vvnoie book is worth reading." — Athenceum. 



VOL. XXXII. — SAM SLICK'S TRAITS OF AMERICAN 
HUMOUR. 

" Dip where you will into this lottery of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize." — Post. 



VOL. XXXIII. — CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE. 

BY THE AUTHOR OF « JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 

" A more charming storv, to our taste, has rarely been written. The writer has hit 
off a circle of varied characters all true to nature, and has entangled them in a story 
which keeps us in suspense till its knot is happily and gracefully resolved. Even if 
tried by the standard of the Archbishop of York, we should expect that even he would 
pronounce * Christian's Mistake ' a novel without a fault."— Times. 

VOL. XXXIV. — ALEC FORBES OF EOWGLEN. 

BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, M.A. 
" No account of this story would give any idea of the profound interest that pervades 
the work from the first page to the last." — Athenceum. 

VOL. XXXV.— AGNES. BY MRS OLIPHANT. 

" ' Agnes ' is a novel superior to any of Mrs Oliphant's former works."— Athenceum. 

"Mrs Oliphant is one of the most admirable of our novelists. In her works there 
are always to be found high principle, good taste, sense, and refinement. ' Agnes' is a 
s* r ..ry whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to all readers."— Post. 



